BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The bouncer at a nearby bar has been charged with aggravated arson in the firebombing of an Over-the-Rhine carry-out last week.
Cincinnati police arrested Richard Tolbert, an employee of The Bank Cafe, on an aggravated arson charge. Investigators are trying to determine who hired him and for how much, Fire Capt. Dan Rottmueller said.
Yousef Saleh, the owner of Jordan Carry Out, says competition has been fierce since his uncle, Omar Saleh, owner of The Bank Cafe, opened a grocery in the same block of West 12th Street two months ago.
When Omar Saleh lowered his pop price to 99 cents, Yousef Saleh lowered his price to 89 cents. But Yousef Saleh fears the competition between the Jordanian immigrants may have led to the firebombing. His store was hit twice last Monday with Molotov cocktails -- homemade bombs fashioned out of 40-ounce beer bottles stuffed with fuel and napkin wicks.
The second bomb hit customer Jerome Thomas, 61, of Walnut Hills, who spent several days recovering at University Hospital from burns to his neck, back, hands and feet.
While both blazes did only about $6,000 damage, court records indicate it was a case of fire for hire.
Omar Saleh said he, too, is concerned by the attack.
"I'm trying to find what's happened," he said. "The one who did this is going to be in trouble with me, too."
Mr. Tolbert, 30, of Covington, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Monday in Hamilton County Municipal Court.
He is being held at the Justice Center in lieu of a $500,000 cash bond. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. A grand jury is expected to decide April 14 whether to indict him.
Yousef Saleh says his competitors want to run his 5-year-old market out of business. Both stores, between Vine and Race, cater to low-income customers and sell food staples, cigarettes, snacks and alcohol.
But Omar Saleh shrugged off the accusations.
"I don't think it's anything about business," he said. "They're working, and we're working. This is competitiveness. You make money."
Omar Saleh said he caused a family spat by hiring away his nephew's store manager.
He said he also hired Mr. Tolbert to keep drug dealers out and would never pay him to harm his family.
But Yousef Saleh said he and his 61-year-old mother narrowly missed being hit by a Molotov cocktail.
Bdria Saleh, Yousef Saleh's mother and Omar Saleh's sister-in-law, explained through broken English and hand gestures how she frantically fled the building. She and her son say the week since the bombing has been unsettling.
"I wake from my sleep," Yousef Saleh said. "I hear something. I think I hear another firebomb."
Graffiti above a boarded doorway at Jordan Carry Out explains the sentiments of those inside: "Your dis-respect of "building' has gone much too "far.' "
