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Police are now investigating an arson case as a hate crime. Last week someone was seen on video appearing to set fire to a mosque in central Hamilton. 34 year old Keith Frederick was already being charged with arson, but after finding messages on his social media pages, police say that he had been planning the attack for at least a month.

Around 11:30 last Wednesday night, Keith Frederick was seen on video grabbing wood from across the street and lighting it on fire outside of the entrance to the Ibrahim Jame Mosque on King street east in downtown Hamilton. Detectives learned Frederick had been planning the attack for about a month and wrote hateful messages to his family members telling them what he was going to do.

“Conducted search warrants, the information led us to evidence on Facebook messenger and those messages that he revealed to us that it was a planned attack on a mosque and it was deliberate towards Islamic faith.” Det. Carmen Pietroniro, hate crime unit.

Hamilton police say Frederick lived only a few blocks away from the mosque and suspect he targeted this one in particular because it was in his neighborhood. He could face up to 14 years in jail for the arson alone, but police say the rare title of hate crime could add even more time. Luckily residents of the apartment building across the street ran over and quickly put out the fire and then followed Frederick to let police know where to find him.

Detectives are confident Frederick acted alone in this case, his bail hearing will be later next week.