{"id":627,"date":"2026-05-20T23:03:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=627"},"modified":"2026-05-20T23:03:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:03:22","slug":"19-year-old-arrested-for-allegedly-setting-fire-to-surprise-ice-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=627","title":{"rendered":"19-year-old arrested for allegedly setting fire to Surprise ICE building"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<section>\n<p><b>SURPRISE, AZ (AZFamily)<\/b> \u2014 A 19-year-old man is facing federal charges after prosecutors say he tried to set fire to a building owned by the Department of Homeland Security in Surprise earlier this year. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=625\">Mackenzie Shirilla\u2019s father placed on administrative leave after participating in Netflix documentary \u2018The Crash\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gabriel Mendoza-Acoltzi of Avondale was arrested May 7 following a federal grand jury indictment. He\u2019s charged with malicious damage to federal property and willful depredation against property of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>The incident happened just after 1 a.m. on February 21. Prosecutors say Mendoza-Acoltzi broke a window at the ICE building in Surprise and tried to set it on fire.<\/p>\n<p>If convicted, he faces five to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and one to three years of supervised release.<\/p>\n<h2>Alleged arsonist caught on camera<\/h2>\n<p>According to court documents, surveillance cameras captured Mendoza-Acoltzi\u2019s Honda Civic pulling into the parking lot around midnight. The video reportedly shows him getting out of his car and placing a propane tank next to the building.<\/p>\n<p>Later footage shows him swinging the propane tank at a window and breaking the glass, documents say. Prosecutors say he then used a long torch connected to the tank to set the window shades inside the lobby on fire.<\/p>\n<p>When investigators arrived, they found an anti-ICE message spelled out with landscaping rocks on the sidewalk.<\/p>\n<p>While in custody, Mendoza-Acoltzi waived his Miranda rights and agreed to speak with investigators. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=623\">WHO worries about Ebola outbreak\u2019s scale and speed as Congo reports 134 deaths<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He allegedly admitted to setting fire to the building, saying he \u201cdid it out of protest.\u201d Investigators said Mendoza-Acoltzi also admitted he knew that DHS had recently purchased the building and he wanted to stop DHS from \u201churting his people.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>According to federal documents, Mendoza-Acoltzi said he decided one night to \u201cgo be Batman.\u201d He also told investigators he planned to shut off the water main in an attempt to disarm the sprinkler system. <\/p>\n<p>Federal officials said at this point, ICE has paid over $40,000 in repairs with a total repair quote of over $400,000.<\/p>\n<p>If convicted, Mendoza-Acoltzi faces five to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and one to three years of supervised release.<\/p>\n<p><i>See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? <\/i><i>Please click here to report it<\/i><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send <\/i><i>it to us here<\/i><i> with a brief description.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=621\">Woman dies after jumping from moving vehicle in Pima County<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona teen faces up to 20 years behind bars for alleged attack on ICE property in Surprise. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>19-year-old arrested for allegedly setting fire to Surprise ICE building - Tucson Moving Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=627\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"19-year-old arrested for allegedly setting fire to Surprise ICE building - 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