Suspect Charged in Freddie’s Beach Bar Arson Incident
A man has been arrested for allegedly setting fires outside of the popular Northern Virginia gay bar and two other nearby restaurants.
A Virginia man has been arrested and accused of setting at least three fires outside the entrances of restaurants along 23rd Street South, including Freddie’s Beach Bar, Northern Virginia’s sole LGBTQ establishment.
The Arlington County Fire Department announced the arrest, which resulted from a joint investigation between Arlington County fire marshals and the Arlington County Police Department.
Investigators looked into a series of blazes ignited outside select businesses between the hours of 4 and 6 a.m. on January 9.
Three separate establishments were targeted in the attacks: Freddie’s Beach Bar, Crystal City Sports Pub, and McNamara’s Pub & Restaurant.
Officers from the Alexandria Police Department arrested 63-year-old Timothy Clark Pollock at 6:45 a.m. on Thursday, January 16. They later transferred him into the custody of Arlington Fire Marshals and Arlington Police.
On Friday, January 17, Pollock was arraigned in Arlington General District Court on three separate charges of arson of an unoccupied public building and remanded into custody of the Arlington County Jail.
He is being held without bond and is next scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on March 24.
According to court records, Pollock has previously faced other criminal charges, but many of those cases are classified as nolle prosequi, meaning prosecutors decided not to move forward with the charges in question.
News website ARLnow.com reports that Pollock faces additional charges for unrelated crimes, which remain under investigation.
Police have not yet disclosed any motive for the arson attempts.
A Facebook account associated with Pollock features several political posts, videos, and memes expressing conservative points of view, espousing mistrust of the federal government, and promulgating right-wing conspiracy theories.
Some posts appear to express animosity toward transgender activists and the idea of gender identity. For example, one November post is a re-post of a C-SPAN video of Nancy Mace arguing in favor of a ban that prohibits transgender individuals from entering multi-user restrooms that align with their gender identity at all sex-segregated facilities within the U.S. Capitol complex. The ban was later implemented by House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Another post, from December 7, includes a link to an article about former U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning being arrested after participating in a sit-in at the U.S. Capitol in protest that very same policy. On that post, Pollock wrote one word: “Freak.”
One non-political post on Pollock’s timeline, shared without comment on the morning of December 21, appears to have been taken from the inside of Freddie’s Beach Bar, showing some of the bar’s Christmas decorations, including a stuffed Santa sprawled out on top of a fireplace hearth.
Freddie Lutz, the owner of Freddie’s, told Metro Weekly he was grateful the fire resulted in minimal damage and that no one was hurt because of the blaze. He also thanked Arlington Fire and Police officials for the “amazing job” they did in tracking down and arresting their chief suspect.
“I found out this guy has quite the record, so hopefully he’ll get put away for a while,” Lutz said.
Tony Rivenbark, the manager at Freddie’s Beach Bar, told Metro Weekly that he was informed by two of his bartenders that Pollock allegedly came into the bar on a recent occasion.
After ordering something, he allegedly claimed he had no money to pay his bill. When the bartenders confronted him about non-payment, he allegedly told them, “I know Freddie.”
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