Brooklyn Park Man Pleads Guilty To Setting Fire In St. Paul Nutrition Store During Last Summer's Unrest
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Brooklyn Park man pleaded guilty Tuesday to setting a St. Paul nutrition store on fire during the unrest following the murder of George Floyd.
The U.S. Department of Justice says 20-year-old Samuel Frey pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson. According to court documents, on May 28, 2020, Frey and two others charged in the case worked to light the Great Health and Nutrition Store on fire.
Investigators say that while Frey was inside the store in the Midway area amid the unrest, he took a bottle of hand sanitizer and poured it onto a downed shelving unit. He then lit the puddle of sanitizer on fire with a piece of burning paper. He poured more hand sanitizer on the fire to accelerate the blaze.
After, Frey told his two co-conspirators to lie to law enforcement and tell them that another person had started the fire, court documents say.
Frey's sentencing as yet to be scheduled.
One of the Frey's co-defendants, 20-year-old McKenzy Dunn, pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to commit arson. Earlier this year, a judge sentenced Dunn to three years of probation and more than $30,000 in restitution.