I haven’t been posting here about the incident in the Dayton Mosque which has given rise to headlines like “Nursery gassed at Ohio Mosque” although it has been covered elsewhere.
Today the local paper reports that the canister of pepper spray was found, not near the mosque, but actually in the mosque and that the son of one of the other family’s attending the Ramadan nosh up upstairs is now being questioned.
From the Dayton Daily News
The can of pepper spray found four days after someone sprayed a 10-year-old girl in the face at a local mosque was discovered inside the mosque, a Dayton police lieutenant said.
The girl said she was sprayed about 9:40 p.m. Sept. 26 through an open basement window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, Lt. John Huber said.
The girl told police one of two men outside the basement window sprayed her with something from a white can with a red top as she watched children whose parents and relatives had gathered at the mosque to celebrate Ramadan.
A can of pepper spray was found Sept. 30 in another room in the basement inside a red and white-striped bag, Huber said. He said it was initially reported to him that the can was found near the mosque, but he later learned it was inside the mosque.
Police have interviewed a 10-year-old boy about the incident. The boy and his family are members of the mosque. Police are not ruling out that someone inside the mosque sprayed the girl, Huber said. I wonder what the motive could be. Had she spurned some lad’s advances? Was she mal-veiled and had to be punished? Had her big sister transgressed the unwritten rule?
Chief Richard Biehl has said there is no evidence the girl was the victim of a hate crime.
She and another woman were taken to local hospitals after feeling nauseous, according to police.
A few of the 300 people celebrating the last 10 days of Ramadan with dinner and a prayer session were treated for eye irritation at the scene.