KEY WEST, Fla. – A 42-year-old Canadian national is facing two felony charges — including one count of arson — for burning an American flag at a Key West homeless shelter, according to police.
According to an arrest report from the Key West Police Department, Ronald Ray Shreenan, arrested Tuesday, was in the United States illegally.
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The report states that on Monday night, Shreenan tried to enter the Cornerstone Resource Alliance shelter, located at 5537 College Road, multiple times and was denied every time due to lack of space.
Authorities said he eventually went on top of a tool shed on the property and burned an American flag belonging to the shelter. According to police, surveillance video showed Shreenan walking away from the blaze.
When Shreenan came back to the shelter, he spat on an employee who had confronted him about the arson, police said.
The report states that police later spoke to Shreenan, who identified himself as “Ray Spencer Shreenan” from Washington. Police wrote that they found a Canadian military patch within a locket while searching his satchel, but he said he was born in Washington and was not Canadian.
Because he had no identification, police said, officers asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for assistance. According to the report, they found out that Shreenan was, in fact, a Canadian citizen, that he had given a fake name and that he was not even supposed to be in the United States.
They said he was flagged by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Seattle on Jan. 24 and was given a notice to appear for removal due to his “illegal immigration status.”
According to jail records, Shreenan was being held without bond in the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Key West jail facility on charges of arson and providing false information to law enforcement as of Wednesday morning.