May 1—MANKATO — The Minneapolis mosque arson suspect's history includes being found incompetent in a similar case from 2021 and assault charges being dismissed against him in Blue Earth County in 2022.

Jackie Rahm Little, 36, faces federal arson charges after police arrested him Saturday in Mankato. He's accused of setting fire to Minneapolis' Masjid Al Rahma mosque and Masjid Omar Islamic Center in April, along with spray-painting graffiti on U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar's district office in January and a patrol car assigned to a Somali police officer in Minneapolis.

Little checked himself into Mankato's hospital on Saturday, where deputies arrested him and brought him to county jail, said Blue Earth County Sheriff Jeff Wersal on Monday.

"There were no problems. He was cooperative," Wersal said. "The feds came down and got him Sunday morning."

Little was previously at the hospital in April 2021, according to a dismissed misdemeanor assault charge against him. The charge on April 20, 2021, lists Little's address as the fourth floor of 1025 Marsh St., the listed address for Mayo Clinic Health System's hospital in Mankato.

The criminal complaint from 2021 alleged Little made derogatory statements toward a man and then slapped him. Prosecutors dismissed the charge in June 2022.

Apart from his arrest Saturday and the dismissed assault charge, Little doesn't have additional notable connections to Mankato or Blue Earth County in his court history.

The federal charges against him stem from alleged incidents in late 2022 and spring 2023.

Omar's congressional email account received a message on Dec. 30 with an attached image depicting a male urinating on a Quran. The representative is the first Somali-American elected to Congress.

A day later, the email account received another message from the same account with an attached image of a bloody ear.

On Jan. 5, the charges state Little shoplifted spray-paint from a Target in Minneapolis. He's accused of going to Omar's nearby district office shortly after and spray-painting "500" on the office's front door — the meaning of "500" is unclear.

Later that day, he reportedly spray-painted the same thing on the patrol vehicle and an entryway to a marketplace known as the "Somali Mall."

Emails to Omar's congressional account continued in the months leading up to the April fires.

The arson charges state Little lit a cardboard box on fire in a bathroom stall at the Islamic center on April 23. Someone reported interrupting him and chasing him outside, leaving burnt cardboard and a partially melted gas can behind.

Surveillance footage at the mosque, also known as Mercy Islamic Center, from April 24 reportedly showed Little going inside around 6:52 p.m. By 7 p.m., a volunteer security guard ran into an office to alert three men to a fire in the building.

About 40 children had to be evacuated from the building. The mosque sustained significant fire and smoke damage.

Investigators identified Little after Plymouth police officers saw surveillance footage and recognized him from a prior arson investigation.

One of Little's prior arson accusations involved a vehicle set on fire in Minneapolis on Dec. 2, 2021. A security guard at an apartment, where Little had been evicted from weeks prior, reportedly showed surveillance footage of Little starting the vehicle on fire then driving away.

Court records indicate Little was deemed incompetent to proceed in the case in January.

After identifying Little as a suspect in the mosque arson cases, investigators interviewed Little's mother on April 27, finding out that he had "extensively harassed a Muslim female" while living in transitional housing. The harassment included him sending her a photo of a Quran in a toilet.

Little's next hearings in U.S. District Court are set for Thursday.

Free Press reporter Tim Krohn contributed to this story.

Follow Brian Arola @BrianArola