Florida: Man Arrested After ‘Rudely Disrupting’ Muslims’ Worship
A 48-year-old man is facing a felony charge after police said he went to a mosque in Miami Gardens and began “rudely disrupting” a worship ceremony Saturday.
The arrest of Raul Jose Betancourt comes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
According to police, the incident happened at around 9:30 p.m. at the Islamic Center of Greater Miami, located at 4305 NW 183rd St.
Betancourt, police said, had previously been trespassed from the property and had come up to an off-duty police officer working a detail at the house of worship asking to “retrieve his belongings” after he said he left them there following a Jan. 15 arrest at the property.
Police said Betancourt left, but then came back and began walking at a “fast pace” towards the mosque.
An arrest report states that while being detained, he “began to cause a disturbance, screaming loud obscenities and rudely disrupting the worship ceremony.”
The report doesn’t state what exactly Betancourt yelled.
Police said he then told officers “I am a terrorist” and said “I am on the watch list,” and, after being put into a squad car, began ramming his head into the partition.
Betancourt, who is homeless, was arrested on a felony charge of disturbing a religious assembly with prejudice plus a misdemeanor trespassing charge.
He also faces a municipal resisting arrest charge. Details of Betancourt’s Jan. 15 arrest weren’t immediately available.
Miami-Dade court records show Betancourt has a long history of arrests in the county dating back to the 1990s.
Those records show he has been convicted on counts ranging from cocaine possession and burglary to battery on an elderly person.
He’s being held in the Metro West Detention Center on a $2,150 bond, according to jail records.
Source: local10.com
