Local NewsWatercooler

Actions

Liquor store owner behind fire to rival store over beer prices

Posted at 11:53 PM, Nov 25, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-26 02:53:44-05

A California store owner is accused of trying to burn down the competition over beer.

Surveillance footage shows a hooded man walking up to Sunny's Liquor store in Riverside and dousing the entrance in gasoline, before setting it on fire. ABC 7 in Los Angeles said the building received exterior and interior damage.

Police believed the rival store owner, identified as Munir Hawara, was behind it because cheaper beer prices at Sunny's was taking business away from his store.

"We're trying to get the exact motive behind it. However, everything is pointing toward a financial motive that putting that particular business out of business would assist this particular owner," Ray Mendoza with the Riverside Fire Department told ABC 7.

Hawara is accused of hiring two men to take out the competition.