A California man copped to setting a Santa Monica restaurant ablaze as agitators used protests of the police murder of George Floyd as an excuse to loot businesses there.
Micah Tillmon, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of an unregistered destructive device Thursday, an admission that he used an accelerant to set the unoccupied Sake House by Hikari on fire last May, according to The LA Times.
The eatery and other businesses in the seaside city had closed over fears of fears of looting and unrest after police faced off with protesters, the paper said.
“While inside the restaurant, Tillmon possessed and used an incendiary device to ignite a fire that rapidly grew, enveloped the entire restaurant space and spread to other areas of the building adjacent to the restaurant,” federal prosecutors reportedly said.
Tillmon was caught on camera taking “a red tube-shaped object from his jacket,” and putting it behind a desk in the sushi spot, officials said. Moments later fire erupted as he walked away, according to the article.
Firefighters could not immediately fully extinguish the blaze due to “safety concerns that accompanied the city’s civil unrest,” prosecutors reportedly wrote, and had to return later that night. The Japanese restaurant never reopened.
Tillmon reportedly faces 10 years in prison.
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