OLYMPIA, Wash. — Minutes after two people tried to set a state legislator’s office building on fire, they participated in a burglary of a nearby antique store, Olympia police said Tuesday.
Surveillance images from both locations suggested the suspects were the same people.
A little after 4 a.m. Monday, security cameras at a property management company owned by state Rep. Andrew Barkis, R-Olympia, captured images of two people on the building's front porch.
One used a tool to break the building’s front window, and the other lit a flare and dropped it inside the building.
The flare landed on stone tiles and burned itself out without damaging the building.
About 15 minutes later, alarms signaled a break-in at the Lighthouse Antiques & Craft Mall, about a mile east of the property management building.
Antique store manager Diane Norman said thieves entered the building through a skylight and stole “thousands of dollars” worth of merchandise, mostly gold jewelry.
Surveillance video from a Farmer’s Insurance office next door captured images of three suspects leaving in a Subaru Outback.
Detectives said they recognized two of the men from the arson at Barkis’ building.
Lighting the fire might have been a plan to create a diversion for first responders during the jewelry robbery.
“That doesn’t put me at ease,” said Barkis. “I’ve never been at a more heightened state of worry.”
Barkis believes the attack was politically motivated, not for any specific legislation he has sponsored, but just because he is a Republican.
“We just live in such a weird, crazy time right now,” said Barkis. “There’s so much going on to incite this type of action.”
Gov. Jay Inslee condemned the attack on Twitter.
“Such attempts at violence are abhorrent. We're thankful no one was hurt. Hopefully law enforcement is able to identify these individuals before they inflict any more harm,” Inslee said in a Tweet.
Anyone with information about either of the incidents is asked to call Olympia Police Department detectives at 360-753-8300.