Man throws Molotov cocktail in Ohio grocery store as woman films it on Snapchat, feds say
.png "An Ohio man set a grocery store on fire by throwing a Molotov cocktail into the store, officials said.")
An Ohio man pleaded guilty to charges after officials said he intentionally set a grocery store on fire with two people inside.
Donald Donatelli, 28, of Batavia pleaded guilty to malicious damage and destruction of a building in interstate commerce, court records show.
McClatchy News reached out to Donatelli’s attorney but did not immediately hear back.
Around 10 p.m. Nov. 26, 2023, Donatelli went to a Cincinnati grocery store and threw a Molitov cocktail into the store, according to an Oct. 30 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
“Donatelli approached the front glass doors of the grocery store and had a bottle of gasoline with a rag inside. He lit the rag and threw the bottle inside the front doors while (a woman) filmed a Snapchat video of the crime,” officials said.
The store was open and the owner and his wife were inside at the time, officials said.
Investigators reviewed surveillance video of the incident and saw that earlier that day a man, later identified as Donatelli, driving a white BMW parked and went into the store, according to a criminal complaint. The same BMW was used when the store was set on fire, according to officials.
“At approximately 9:55 PM, after it appeared that all of the customers left the grocery, (Donatelli) exited the driver’s door of the vehicle and walked towards the entrance of the grocery. … (Donatelli) then ran back to the white sedan and entered the passenger side of the vehicle and exited the parking lot,” the complaint said.
Officials later spoke to a witness who said Donatelli showed them a Snapchat video of a person dressed in black throwing the bottle into the store, setting it on fire, according to officials.
Donatelli told the person that “somebody didn’t pay up to his dude” and that “he didn’t get paid for starting the fire … he just did it out of loyalty to show his (expletive), the kind of person he is,” the witness told investigators, according to the court document.
Officials eventually recovered the video, which they say was recorded from a vehicle and showed a man dressed in black throw “something inside that causes an explosive fire,” the complaint said.
Officials said a woman was heard on the video and was the one recording, while Donatelli set the store on fire.
The plea agreement has a recommended sentence of five and a half years in prison. Charges against the woman are pending, officials said.
