The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced it is investigating a firebombing attack that targeted the offices of three conservative organizations in Golden Valley, Minnesota, on Sunday.
One of the organizations targeted during the attack, TakeCharge, is an organization committed to supporting black communities and countering the narrative that the United States is a systemically racist country. The executive director of TakeCharge, Sheila Qualls, told The New American, “We are a black-led organization and they went into our offices at night and burned them down, doing what they claim they fight against, and they don’t even realize the hypocrisy of what they are doing.”
The president of TakeCharge, Kendall Qualls, told The New American that the organization continues to grow, gaining traction with over 50 volunteers from black communities in Minnesota. “When I say volunteers, I’m talking about people that were former gangbangers, drug dealers. Most of these people come from broken homes, but they fixed their lives, and they’ve been prospering in the America that we know today, not the ‘systemic racism’ false narrative America, the real one,” he said. He also noted how TakeCharge is leading the conversation with its extensive media library, saying, “We have the largest multimedia … library of black Americans that denounce Black Lives Matter, denounce critical race theory and DEI, and call for a need to get back to our roots of faith, family, and education.”
The attackers started fires on the first and third floors of the building where the three conservative organizations are located. The second floor was not targeted. As a result of the attack, though, the entire building has been declared uninhabitable, thereby impacting all occupants of the office building. While some of the businesses have been able to function remotely, not all are able to do so.
Golden Valley Assistant Fire Chief Dominique Guzman told The New American they received a business alarm at 2:11 a.m. Golden Valley Police Department officers arrived at the scene first and found an active fire. Guzman described it as a “ventilation-limited fire” and said it was fairly short, and stated there were no victims or suspects at the scene. Hennepin County fire investigators determined on the scene that the fire was a result of arson, and the investigation was referred to state fire investigators, who then referred the investigation to the ATF.
ATF public information officer Ashlee J. L. Sherrill confirmed the arson investigation, telling The New American, “The fire is being investigated as an act of arson. We are investigating alongside the Golden Valley Fire Department, the Hennepin County Fire Investigative Team, the Minnesota State Fire Marshal Division and the FBI. Since it is still an ongoing investigation, we are limited [in] what we can add for detail.”
