Prosecutors: Woman Mad at U.S. Actions Abroad Set Multiple Fires on Minnesota University Campus

A woman allegedly set multiple fires on a Minnesota University campus because she was mad at the U.S. military’s actions in foreign countries.

Tnuza Jamal Hassan, 19, who used to be a student at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, allegedly told investigators she set multiple fires on campus last week to retaliate against the U.S. military for destroying schools in the Middle East, Fox News reported.

“Hassan stated she started the fires because she’s been reading about the U.S. military destroying schools in Iraq or Afghanistan and she felt that she should do exactly the same thing,” a criminal complaint said. “She said that her fire-starting was not as successful as she wanted.”

Hassan, of Minneapolis, attended St. Catherine University in the fall 2017 semester and majored in English but did not enroll for the current semester, the Midland Daily News reported.

She reportedly left school because she and her family planned to take a trip to Ethiopia.

The former student set fires to multiple buildings, including a dormitory with an attached daycare center.

Thirty-three children and eight adults were at the daycare center at the time of the fire, but the sprinkler system prevented the fire from spreading.

No injuries had been reported, and most of the damage was to university equipment, the school said in a statement.

Hassan allegedly told investigators that she wrote a letter to her roommates suggesting “radical ideas about supporting Muslims and bringing back the caliphate,” prosecutors say.

Her roommates alerted campus security upon seeing the letter, according to the criminal complaint.

Prosecutors say Hassan told investigators, “You guys are lucky that I don’t know how to build a bomb because I would have done that,” around the time of her arrest.

“Hassan said she wanted the school to burn to the ground and that her intent was to hurt people,” the complaint added. “Hassan said this was that same thing that happened in ‘Muslim land’ and nobody cares if they get hurt, so why not do this?”

Authorities charged Hassan with first-degree arson and took her to the Ramsey County Jail, where she is being held on $100,000 bond. She has not yet entered a plea but is due back in court on February 28, the Pioneer Press reported.

Hassan’s nationality has not been revealed due to privacy laws, authorities said.