Miami Beach Police interrupted a 72-year-old domestic terrorist in the midst of executing a heinous plan to blow up his sprawling high-rise condominium, and everyone in it, with a special focus on his Jewish neighbors. MBPD arrived just before 4 PM Thursday in response to credible tips that Walter Edward Stolper wanted to blow up his building.
A resident and a security guard had also both just reported a strong smell of gasoline.
The cops soon found Stolper pushing a grocery cart—filled with two large gasoline jugs—through the building’s parking garage. The would-be arsonist also had padlocks with him; he’d planned to lock the firehose housing in order to slow down firefighters’ efforts to douse the flames.
Further investigation revealed Stolper had placed eight more jugs of gasoline at the bottom of the building’s trash chute. At least two more jugs of gasoline had been poured down the chute, originating from the fifteenth floor, where Stolper lives. Once they were inside that fifteenth floor condo, Miami Beach police found two firearms and "artifacts with swastikas and books of Nazi ideology,” in addition to electric fans that Stolper had hoped would fan the flames. Stolper had also disabled his smoke alarm.
Shortly after Stolper, a business owner originally from Wisconsin, had been transported to jail, detectives learned of an additional storage unit in the building connected to him. There, just off the laundry room, authorities discovered 28 more gasoline jugs, in addition to packages of sulfur powder, potassium nitrate, fuses, and end caps—most of the ingredients one needs to create homemade bombs.
When asked about the gasoline, Stolper told police that he was going to “make a small barbecue.” The police report also alleges that Stolper told responding officers he wanted to "kill all of the fucking Jews.”
The real motivation for Stolper’s just-barely foiled plot appears to have been revealed by multiple witnesses, including Luis Diaz, who was the first to alert authorities.
“He told me he was tired of the (condo) association and the Jews in the building and he wanted to do something about it. He said he wanted to burn down the building. At first, I didn’t think he was serious, but then I heard him talk about blocking the fire department and their hoses. I realized he was serious and I had to do something,” said Diaz.
“I contacted the building and they contacted police. I think he needs help. He is a confused older man. I have been his friend for 10 years…
At first, I thought he was just angry and venting but I realized it was much more.”
Stolper was also facing eviction, and was a known troublemaker in the building.
Stolper's condo complex has apparently been trying to evict him for some time. His "motivation appears to have been a combination of anger at an upcoming eviction and anger toward fellow residents who are Jewish," MBPD says. Officers wrote that Stolper had apparently "shown his anger" at his neighbors in the past.
One of Stolper’s neighbors was a bit more blunt.
Building resident Rafael Solar said, “This is a crazy madman and he has done some stuff before.”
Stolper faces charges of attempted arson and attempted murder, and is being held without bail while the State’s attorney determines whether to also charge him with a hate crime.
If you see something, say something. If Diaz hadn’t reported Stolper—and if the police hadn’t taken him seriously—we’d have spent the last few days reeling from another senseless tragedy.