The FBI and local law enforcement officials have arrested two men as suspects, Alexander Jacob King and Ricky Bernard Cooper, in the burning of Chase Bank in La Mesa, California during the Black Lives Matter protest of May 30, 2020. The scheduled protest quickly turned into a riot, with attacks on the police station, City Hall, vandalism, looting and arson. It appeared that the Black-Lives-Matter rioters intended to burn down the La Mesa Police Station, as had happened in Minneapolis just the night before. The La Mesa Police prevented them from gaining control of the police station and their attention turned to the banks and other buildings. They did set fire to an annex to City Hall next door to the police station, also, but the fire died out before it could engulf City Hall.
Two Arrested for Arson on Chase Bank BuildingThis is video of a leading Black-Lives-Matter organizer, Tasha Williamson, and her entourage of supporters touring the scene as Chase and Union banks are burned to the ground and passing drivers appear to honk approval. Another major building, the historic Randall Lamb building was burned at the same time, just behind the two banks.
At a City Council meeting, Tasha Williamson threatened to burn down another suburb of San Diego, National City, just two years before La Mesa was torched. A couple of hours before the burning, she declared on a livestream that, “the revolution has started“.
