Story highlights The state attorney's office will decide whether it was a hate crime, the sheriff says

Sheriff: The suspect told detectives he assumed the store owner was Muslim

(CNN) A 64-year-old Florida man tried to set a convenience store on fire because he thought the owners were Muslim, St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara said.

Richard Lloyd told deputies he wanted to "run the Arabs out of our country" so he pushed a dumpster in front of the Port St. Lucie store and set the contents on fire, Mascara said in a news release posted on Facebook.

Richard Lloyd

Lloyd told detectives he assumed the owner was Muslim and that angered him because of "what they are doing in the Middle East," Mascara said.

"It's unfortunate that Mr. Lloyd made the assumption that the store owners were Arabic when, in fact, they are of Indian descent," Mascara said.

The sheriff said Lloyd's mental health will be evaluated and the state attorney's office will decide if this was a hate crime.

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