On the day of the opening of the Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival this past October, “Fridley man” Firomsa Ahmed Umar was charged with two counts of arson in connection with the late-night firebombing of a Minneapolis ice cream shop. He struck late the evening before and again the following day. Once was not enough. I’ve mentioned the case a few times on Power Line, most recently in “Priorities.”
Umar’s motive was unclear. Speculation ranged from the LGBTQ flag that the ice cream shop had affixed to the building to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s residence with his family on the same block in a loft apartment. Frey is Jewish. Some wondered whether was expressing support for Frey opponent Ahmed Fateh in the then upcoming election.
The LGBTQ flag seemed like a stretch to me. There is no shortage of LGBTQ flags around town. Why pick on Fletcher’s Ice Cream and Cafe? Maybe Umar was protesting ice cream. The adjacency of Frey’s residence was also a stretch. Umar went back a second time to target the shop. I thought it unlikely that Frey was his intended target.
This week a federal jury convicted Umar of arson and a few related offenses. It turns out that the LGBTQ flag actually set him off. The Department of Justice press release on the case reports:
A federal jury convicted Firomsa Ahmed Umar, age 31, of one count of arson and attempted arson on October 19, 2025; possession of an unregistered destructive device on October 19, 2025; attempted arson on October 20, 2025; and possession of an unregistered destructive device on October 20, 2025, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen. The jury also found that the defendant selected Fletcher’s, which displayed a prominent Pride flag at the time, as the object of the offenses because of actual or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation.
According to court documents and evidence at trial, the defendant twice threw homemade destructive devices at Fletcher’s Ice Cream & Café in Minneapolis: once on October 19, 2025 and again on October 20, 2025. In each incident, the defendant threw glass bottles filled with gasoline. One contained a mixture known as “improvised napalm.”
In the first attack on the night of October 19, the defendant lobbed his first Molotov Cocktail at Fletcher’s large front windows, which broke both panes of glass and ignited in a large blast of flame. Fortunately, employees of a nearby business responded quickly and put out the remaining flames.
The defendant returned the next day, attempted to open the door, found it locked, and again threw a similar Molotov Cocktail at the façade. Because the cloth wick inserted into the mixture fell from the bottle, the device failed to ignite, but did cause further damage to the window.
When arrested on October 20, the defendant had a gas can, a lighter, and a third bottle stuffed with a third bottle stuffed with an ingredient for improvised napalm, with other Molotov Cocktail components nearby
The jury heard additional evidence that the defendant chose Fletcher’s due to the prominent display of a Pride flag above the façade, and had painted homophobic graffiti outside a local apartment complex four weeks earlier.
The press release is posted online here together with photographs of Umar in action.
