{"id":334748,"date":"2026-07-09T19:14:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T19:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/334748\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T19:14:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T19:14:36","slug":"drop-the-knife-armed-man-caught-setting-fire-to-tampa-restaurant-deputies-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/334748\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Drop the knife\u2019: Armed man caught setting fire to Tampa restaurant, deputies say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 An arson suspect was arrested Tuesday after Hillsborough County deputies said they found him holding two knives inside a burning restaurant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The July 7 incident was captured on surveillance video from the restaurant off West Waters Avenue in Tampa, as well as deputies&#8217; body-worn cameras.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:2 cases of &#039;explosive&#039; diarrhea parasite reported in Hillsborough County;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;outcm:mb_qualified_link;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/science\/articles\/2-cases-explosive-diarrhea-parasite-131212165.html\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a02 cases of &#8216;explosive&#8217; diarrhea parasite reported in Hillsborough County\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office said deputies were initially dispatched to the restaurant around 9 a.m. after receiving a call regarding an assault or battery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Court documents stated that the suspect, Rubiel Maceo Castillo, 53, had grabbed two knives and charged at some of the people in the restaurant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He then cut the gas line to a grill and grabbed a propane tank, according to the documents. Officials said a woman tried to stop Castillo, and he cut her on the wrist with one of the knives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Deputies arrived to find the business filled with smoke and flames and a burning propane tank outside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Castillo was still inside the restaurant and deputies said they could see him holding the knives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Drop the knife now. Do it now,&#8221; one of the responding deputies yelled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">After getting Castillo out of the building, crews rushed to extinguish the flames.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A review of surveillance video showed a man, believed to be Castillo, walking around the business with a burning propane tank.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Authorities said Castillo was arrested and charged with first-degree arson, along with multiple other charges related to the incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The incident is believed to have stemmed from a domestic situation between Castillo and his wife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 An arson suspect was arrested Tuesday after Hillsborough County deputies said they found him&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[276,5221,137932,6809,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-334748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-restaurant","tag-rubiel-maceo-castillo","tag-surveillance-video","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}