In rather shocking news, a young man from Tampa, Florida confessed to the double homicide of his two roommates after being confronted by police at a local smoking shop where he was found holding three people hostage. After police managed to get the hostages released and subdue Devon Arthurs, 18, he then led officers to his apartment where they discovered the bodies of Jeremy Himmelman, 22, and Andrew Oneschuk, 18.
But this is where the plot thickens, and takes a turn for the wildly absurd.
Arthurs admitted to shooting his roommates after becoming frustrated with their criticism of his conversion to Islam. Formerly a Neo-Nazi, Arthurs found his roommates (who were also Neo-Nazis) to be disrespectful of his faith.
According to the Washington Post, while police were investigating the scene at the young men’s apartment, they found the organic compound hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, which is commonly used as an initiating and primary explosive. This same compound was used in other terror attacks across the globe and was suspected as a component in the Manchester attack Monday. Also found at the scene were other nefarious bomb-making materials such as ammonium nitrate, thorium, and americium.
The materials were later concluded to be owned by Arthurs’ third roommate, Brandon Russell, 21, who was later arrested while driving in the Florida Keys. Russell, who had discovered the bodies of his roommates, had just returned from Army National Guard training. He was also an admitted Neo-Nazi and claimed to be from the Neo-Nazi group "Atomwaffen."
When police entered Russell’s room they found a framed picture of terrorist Timothy McVeigh, who was responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing that killed more than 160 people and left over 600 injured.
According to Russell’s federal arrest statement, the materials were left over from an engineering project in 2013. Arthurs, however, claimed that his roommate had been commenting on Neo-Nazi chat rooms making claims threatening to “kill people and bomb infrastructure.”
Tampa police are still investigating the incident, along with the FBI. It is unknown whether there will be a separate investigation by the National Guard into Russell.
It may be a given, but when you combine Neo-Nazis, radical Islamists, guns, and bomb making material in a Tampa, Florida apartment, things are bound to get out of control.