Investigation of Muslim leader killed in Yermo fire dead-ends

YERMO • The case involving a local Muslim leader killed in a Yermo house fire still hasn’t produced any suspects and investigators are now shelving the case, according to officials from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

“We’ve pretty much exhausted all of our leads,” said sheriff’s spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire.

Ali Mohammed, 51, died on June 27 while he was out visiting the Yermo property his family had recently moved out of when the building went up in flames.

Investigators from the bomb and arson unit have confirmed that the fire was human-caused and not a result of faulty equipment, Wiltshire said. At the time, several neighbors confirmed hearing a loud explosion ring out before seeing the house on fire.

But they have not been able to determine who started the fire, she said.

Though the fire left only charred remains, photographs that Mohammed had taken two days before his death showed vandalism had taken place inside the vacated house. Spray-painted Nazi swastikas and racial epithets that singled out the family’s Middle Eastern heritage covered the interior walls. The family gave the digital photographs to investigators as part of the evidence.

Fire had struck at the same property before. Mohammed was a landlord and former owner of a mosque that burned down in February 2007. At the time two men, 18-year-old Loren Jesse Clark and an unidentified 16-year-old male, were arrested in connection with the fire that destroyed a garage building that served as a mosque, and also burned down two other buildings. Clark was arraigned on two counts of felony arson.

Investigators questioned Clark regarding Mohammed’s death but never named him or anyone else as suspects, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Beavers.

The family contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into Mohammed’s death as a possible hate crime and had one meeting with FBI officials, according to Mohammed’s 21-year-old son, Jordan. The FBI did not open its own investigation, but told the family they would oversee the sheriff’s department’s case, Jordan said.

According to Jordan as well as sheriff’s officials, the incident was never labeled as a hate crime.

“They have found no evidence to indicate that Mr. Mohammed was (the) intended target,” Wiltshire said.
Jordan said investigators cited similar incidents that occurred in Yermo during the summer, but where vacant houses were torched.

“There were other houses that burned down, too,” he said.

The family moved from Yermo to Victorville due to increasing racial harassment, Jordan had previously said.

Mohammed left behind a wife and seven children.

Wiltshire said sheriff’s investigators are still requesting anyone with information to call the Barstow Sheriff’s Department at (760) 256-4838, or the anonymous We Tip Hotline at 1-800-782-7463.

“All the questions have not been answered,” said Wiltshire. “Sometimes they don’t ever get answered.”

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com