PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Punta Gorda man is facing felony arson charges after his mother told police she believed he started a fire at a synagogue last Friday night.
The Chabad of Charlotte County was the site of a recent arson attack, in which someone broke a window, started a fire in one of the classrooms and spray-painted “J” across the building. Crews were able to extinguish the flames quickly, and no injuries were reported, but the building interior was damaged, along with a broken door and window.
The fire occurred the night of September 19, and on Monday, a woman called the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office and told a detective that her sister told her she believed it was her son, Blake Hoover, who started the fire.
His mother later told detectives that Hoover, 31, hated Jewish people and members of the LGBTQ+ community and that his attitude had worsened in recent years. She reported that her son asked her if she was aware that “the old library was a Jewish place now and he was going to burn it down,” an affidavit from Charlotte County said.
The mother told police that Hoover left the house the night of the fire with a gas can and spray paint, and later returned with the gas can emptied. The next morning, she asked him what he did, and he replied, “I just sprayed the letter J, not a big deal.”
However, while watching the news, his mother learned of the extent of the attack and immediately suspected her son, the affidavit said.
A traffic camera captured Hoover’s car moving in the direction of the synagogue at 10:09 p.m., around 40 minutes before the fire was reported, further corroborating his mother’s story.
Hoover was arrested and booked into the Charlotte County Jail on Monday. He has been charged with arson during the commission of a felony, a second-degree felony, and criminal mischief to a religious structure, a third-degree felony.
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