Biography
Shabazz Akeem Isiah Watson is a Black man from Saint Stephen (Berkeley County), South Carolina, who received a five-year federal prison sentence for arson committed during the George Floyd uprising in Charleston. On the night of May 30–31, 2020, in the hours after demonstrations erupted in downtown Charleston following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Watson entered and set fire to four businesses: a wine bar on King Street, a retail clothing store on King Street, a paint store on Meeting Street, and a Family Dollar store at 478 Meeting Street, causing a total of $2,415,510.75 in damages — the majority from the Family Dollar fire, which gutted the building entirely. Watson was initially arrested on October 13, 2020 on state burglary and arson charges; he was later prosecuted federally. On March 20, 2023, he pleaded guilty in federal court to a single count of arson under 18 U.S.C. § 844, with three additional arson counts dismissed in exchange for the plea. On June 7, 2023, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel sentenced him to five years in federal prison with no parole eligibility, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $2,415,510.75 in restitution. As of July 2026, Watson was still serving his sentence at an undisclosed federal facility.
