Nov. 22 -- Federal authorities have arrested a suspect in one of nine blazes at East Bay construction sites that have gripped Oakland and surrounding areas and fueled suspicion that one or more arsonists were targeting new housing developments.
Dustin Bellinger, 45, who also uses the name Faheem Bey, was arrested around 7 p.m. Tuesday in Oakland, according to Alameda County jail records.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office charged him with one felony count of maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive — a charge that carries a penalty of 5 to 20 years in prison.
Bellinger, a self-employed handyman and part-time construction worker from Oakland, has previous convictions for serious crimes, including kidnapping and second-degree robbery. He was sentenced to 11 years and nine years in state prison for each crime respectively, according to court records.
Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives linked Bellinger to an intentionally set fire that burned itself out inside the under-construction Hollis Oak apartments along Peralta Street near the Oakland-Emeryville border in the early-morning hours of Oct. 23, according to a federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday.
The same morning as the Hollis Oak fire, a massive inferno destroyed a 126-unit residential construction site known as the Ice House complex 10 blocks away along West Grand Avenue — the second time the site had caught fire over a six-month period.
Federal authorities have not charged Bellinger with the Ice House fire or several other high-profile fires that destroyed major construction projects in and around Oakland in recent years. The first reports of an arsonist came after authorities released video footage of a hooded bicyclist igniting a blaze that destroyed a $35 million Emeryville complex in May 2017 — the second time that site was targeted in a year.
Authorities have not said if they believe the person in the video was Bellinger.
But in an application to seal the affidavit accompanying Wednesday’s complaint, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elise Lapunzina wrote that “this is an ongoing investigation into one of several arsons.”
The suspicious fires have put developers on edge for years with many investing in pricey security measures like round-the-clock guards, dogs, cameras, lights and fences. News of an arrest on Wednesday brought some measure of relief.
“It’s clearly good news for everyone involved — the developers, the Ice House project folks that were slated to move in there,” said Simon Chen, chief financial officer of Madison Park Financial, the developer of Hollis Oak. “I think this is good news for the entire community.”
Investigators linked Bellinger to the Oct. 23 fire at Hollis Oak through DNA found on evidence left at the crime scene. A security guard at the 124-unit project, which was set to open Dec. 1, noticed smoke coming from the windows of a first-floor apartment, ATF Special Agent Cynthia Chang wrote in the affidavit.
The fire burned out in a first-floor bathroom due to lack of oxygen, officials said. Firefighters and police found a hammer on a window sill, a lighter and an unburned red plastic gasoline container with a rag stuffed into its spout outside the bathroom, Chang wrote.
Investigators later found more evidence at the scene, including a dust mask, a cigarette butt, a black latex glove and a “reddish-brown smudge” inside a broken window sill, officials said.
The smudge, hammer, cigarette butt and latex glove all contained DNA, which investigators plugged into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS database, Chang wrote. On Nov. 2, the DNA on the smudge came back to Bellinger, according to the ATF.
Bellinger also uses the name Faheem Bey on Facebook and Instagram. Several posts dating back to November 2017 showcase his construction skills, with projects including roofing, carpet installation and demolition.
In a video posted on Feb. 17, Bellinger recorded himself tiling a bathroom floor while urging employers to hire black men for “high-end” work.
“A lot of times you see black men and brothers doing small work, but I’m here to let you know a lot of us, you know, we can, we can do that high-end work,” he says in the video.
On his Facebook page, Bellinger wrote that he is self-employed and attended Oakland Technical High School.
Bellinger uses the surname Bey in association with the family that owned Your Black Muslim Bakery, one of whom — Yusuf Bey IV — is among three men in prison for the 2007 killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two others, according to the ATF.
In a June 2006 letter to a judge, “Bellinger makes reference to a ‘my brotha Antar Bey (Dr. Yusif Bey’s son),’ along with a statement that his second wife was Jahannah Bey,” Chang wrote.
Fear that construction projects were under attack from one or more arsonists escalated in May 2017 when surveillance cameras captured a suspect setting a fire at the construction site on the 3800 block of San Pablo Avenue. It would be the second time the project burned down, raising questions about whether the attacks were motivated by housing costs and gentrification.
In April, cameras again captured a hooded arsonist torching a $55 million, 180-apartment construction project in Concord and forcing 250 people to flee nearby homes.
Before the Ice House project went up in flames, a small fire there on April 29 was quickly extinguished, prompting fire officials to warn the project’s managers that the site was poorly secured.
In July 2017, the seven-story Alta Waverly development burned down west of Lake Merritt in Oakland. The cause of that fire has not been determined. On Oct. 31, 2016, a three-story apartment complex burned down east of the lake.
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