Florida man converts to Islam, accused of killing neo-Nazi roommates for disrespecting new faith

A Tampa man confessed to being a former neo-Nazi and murdering two of his roommates for disrespecting his conversion to Islam, police said.

A double-homicide investigation began when Devon Arthurs, 18, got arrested at a local smoke shop on Friday for holding two customers and an employee hostage, the Tampa Bay Times reported. 

Police talked Arthurs into letting the victims go, and when they took him into custody he led police to the bodies of his former roommates at his apartment.

Arthurs said to officers that he used to be a white supremacist with his roommates but recently converted to Islam, the Tampa Bay Times reports. When his roommates did not accept his new religion, he shot and killed both of them.

On Sunday Arthurs’ third neo-Nazi roommate, Brandon Russell, 21, was arrested in Key Largo when officers pulled him over during a traffic stop, the Miami Herald reports.

Russell was accused of making explosives in the apartment he shared with Arthurs, where officers found bomb detection devices and radiation materials in his room, according to the Herald.

Arthurs told police that before he murdered his two roommates, Russell communicated in neo-Nazi online chat rooms where he “threatened to kill people and bomb infrastructure,” the Herald reports.

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