Student Set Fire to School Full of Children to 'Protest Trump'

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A former college student has been arrested after allegedly starting four fires at a Christian university and school during a protest against President Trump.

19-year-old Tnuza Jamal Hassan, from Minneapolis, was charged with arson after admitting to starting four fires at St Catherine's University on Wednesday which spread to a daycare center with 33 children inside.

According to the criminal complaint, Hassan told police she started the fires because she had been reading about Donald Trump and the US military destroying schools in either Afganistan or Iraq, but couldn't recall which, other than to say it was "Muslim land."

The complaint stated:

"Hassan said this was the same thing that happened in the 'Muslim land' and nobody cares if they get hurt, so why not do this?"

The complaint, cited by Minneapolis Star Tribune, says Hassan told police her intent was burn the school and university "to the ground" to "hurt the people inside."

Arresting officers reported that she said: "You guys are lucky that I don’t know how to build a bomb because I would have done that."

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Daily Mail reports: On Friday, Hassan appeared in Ramsey County District Court and was charged with a single count of first-degree arson, reported Pioneer Press.

She was then remanded back to the county jail. 

Officials say a sprinkler system saved the lives of 33 children and eight adults after the dormitory fire spread to an adjoined daycare center.

The university said in a press release on Thursday that "no one was injured. There was damage to furnishings, structural damage to the impacted buildings."

Police obtained surveillance video from the university, which allowed them to track Hassan to Crandall Hall where she was ultimately taken into custody in a student lounge after a room-to-room search.

According to the college, the 19-year-old was last enrolled at St Catherine's in the fall of 2017.

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Hassan reportedly dropped out because her family was planning to travel to Ethiopia.

Officials said between 11.40pm and 2 pm, Hassan torched a chair at St Mary's residence hall and burned a few smaller items, including books, toilet paper and sanitary napkins in women's bathrooms on campus.

Following her arrest, Hassan allegedly told police that she had written a letter to her roommates containing "radical ideas about supporting Muslims and bringing back the caliphate," the complaint said. 

The letter frightened the roommates, who handed it over to campus security.