A northwestern Minnesota woman was sentenced Tuesday to five years of supervised probation for starting a fire at East Grand Forks’ Islamic Center in 2022.

Suzette Gay Thompson, 60, of Thief River Falls, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree arson; a second count was dismissed.

In the early morning hours of June 5, 2022, an East Grand Forks police officer was dispatched to the mosque for a fire, according to a probable cause statement filed in the case. The reporting party showed the officer a curtain/room divider that was partially melted and burned.

He and another man had come to the center to pray, and when one of them returned from the restroom, he saw a woman — later identified as Thompson — fleeing from the building, the statement said. When the man walked in her direction, he noticed the curtain was on fire,

Surveillance footage showed Thompson using a lighter and spray can to start the fire, before throwing the can on the ground and leaving the scene, the statement said.

Thompson was arrested later that morning. She told law enforcement she’d been drinking and didn’t remember doing anything, but conceded that she recognized the hairspray can in the surveillance footage and the woman in the video looked like her. Her breath test had a 0.00 result.

Thompson was sentenced to 48 months stayed for a period of five years, during which she will be on supervised probation. She served 127 days at the Northwest Regional Corrections Center prior to sentencing.

She was ordered to complete different evaluations — including a Level of Service Inventory to assess her risk of offending and a comprehensive assessment — and related treatment if determined necessary. Thompson is prohibited from having any contact with the victims in the case, and cannot be within 300 feet of the Islamic Center.

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