Hourly Update

Police: Chandler man carefully planned revenge in Home Depot attack

CHANDLER - Feeling slighted because of a small raise at the Home Depot where he used to work and by U.S. plans to build a 700-mile fence along the border with Mexico, police said Ali R. Warrayat carefully planned his revenge. He wanted to make a statement, and hopefully burn down the Chandler store where he worked before transferring to a Queen Creek Home Depot about six months ago, according to police reports and interviews. Early on Dec. 18, the 24-year-old Gilbert resident and Arizona State University student set his plan in motion. Warrayat loaded his Quran and a Palestinian flag into the trunk of his car, put his cat and his uncle's pit bull in the front, and hit the gas, according to the reports and interviews. The car accelerated, slamming through the front doors of the store. He steered the car straight to the paint department, his old job station. Crashing into a counter and scattering flammable fuel everywhere, the car stopped and Warrayat climbed out. He clambered onto the roof, looked around, then jumped to the ground with his lighter. A flick was all it took. Flames climbed and explosions boomed as employees ran for safety. Warrayat calmly walked out of the store, leaving the dog to die inside the burning car. The cat has never been found. Police said they found him calmly sitting on the curb waiting for them and he was at first cooperative. Then he turned belligerent. The fire was quickly extinguished Co-workers were amazed at his alleged actions. He had always been "gentleman-like and respectable with everyone," said co-worker and friend Joaquin Bustamante. "When I saw him on TV, he did not look like the Ali that I know," Bustamante said. "He was a hard worker and worked circles around everybody, and he was a very private person." Warrayat was deeply religious and had a Quran hanging from his rearview mirror, Bustamante said. He talked about his religion with police interrogators, and told them he had a swastika tattooed on the sole of his foot, a mark of disrespect, because his mosque was once defaced with one. He said he put the dog in his trunk to show it the Quran, but because dogs are "filthy" the animal didn't want to be in the trunk with the holy book. He called a news conference at the Maricopa County jail to give a statement, then clammed up with the media gathered. Warrayat, a native of Jordan who holds U.S. citizenship, is being held on aggravated assault and arson charges. The fire caused about $1 million in damage. He is being held without bond at Maricopa County's Lower Buckeye Jail in Phoenix.