SALT LAKE CITY — The FBI has arrested a Salt Lake man who they say set fire to an overturned police car during a violent protest in May over the killing of George Floyd.
Christopher Isidoro Rojas, 28, used a cigarette lighter to help another man wearing a gas mask light a white tablecloth or bedsheet on fire and, once it started to burn, helped the man in the gas mask throw it toward the patrol car, according to a new felony complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
The burning fabric landed partially inside the car and partially on the street. Rojas is later recorded on video saying, “I put the cop car on fire. It didn’t blow up,” the complaint says.
Federal agents have not identified or found the man in the gas mask. U.S. Attorney John Huber said he might be from out of state.
In June, Salt Lake police sought help from the public finding the man who claimed on the video to have set fire to the car. By the end of the month, investigators had received multiple tips identifying him as Rojas, according to the complaint.
One of the tipsters told investigators that Rojas knew the FBI was looking for him and that he was deleting his social media accounts to limit his online profile, the complaint said.
Investigators arrested Rojas on July 17 as he left his Salt Lake apartment in an Uber.
“We were able to take Rojas into custody after a traffic stop,” said Paul Haertel, FBI special agent in charge in Salt Lake City.
Rojas is charged with one count of arson. He faces a minimum of five years and up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Huber said the community played a significant role in pointing investigators to Rojas.
The complaint also says agents found a recent newspaper article in which Rojas was interviewed.
A June 5 Washington Post article quotes a Christopher Rojas as the leader of a protest over Floyd’s death in Logan. Rojas was about four hours into a protest outside a courthouse when he saw two police officers walking up the sidewalk, carrying a stack of bright orange boxes and a large cooler, according to the story.
“I thought, ‘Oh, no, here come the police to hassle us — this is a peaceful gathering and we have a right to be here,’” Rojas, described as a 28-year-old Salt Lake sound engineer, is quoted as saying.
As the officers drew closer, he realized they were carrying pizza.
“It was an incredible, really cool thing to do,” Rojas said, according to the story.
Unlike the May riot in Salt Lake City, Haertel said most protests in Utah have been peaceful and most of the protesters were local.
“On May 30, we saw people hijack what started out as a peaceful and lawful protest to incite violence and damage property. Rather than join in the pursuit of equality and justice, they sought to undermine the greater message,” he said.
Huber called it a “dark day” in Utah.
“It’s a day that opportunists and extremists hijacked a peaceful protest and overran the typically safe streets of Salt Lake City,” he said. “In the moment of that day, the extremists acted with great confidence as they believed they would carry the day. But order prevailed as it should.”
Rojas is the third person federal authorities have arrested in connection with setting the police car on fire. Jackson Stuart Tamowski Patton, 26, and LaTroi Newbins, 28, both of Salt Lake City, are also facing one count of arson.
Correction: In an earlier version, U.S. Attorney John Huber’s last name was misspelled as Hubert.