North Royal Palm Drive, May 26, 11 p.m.
A motor-home dweller allegedly caused a severe fire at his residence that almost killed several people, said a Pima County Sheriff's Department report.
Sheriff's deputies found the motor home engulfed in flames and saw a man in his 40s running around waving a garden hose. Deputies were approached by a juvenile male--apparently, the son of the hose-waving man's fiancée--who declared the man to be responsible for the fire. Deputies arrested the man, noting that both the subject and the juvenile were covered with gasoline.
According to the juvenile, the man had come home to his RV, where he lived with his fiancée, and found that it was out of gas and stuck halfway in the street. The man may have assumed his fiancée tried to steal the motor home, because he turned violent and verbally abusive, and tried to pull his fiancée out of the RV by her legs.
The man also obtained a container of gasoline. When his fiancée's son appeared on the scene and intervened, the subject reportedly assaulted him, slopped gasoline all over him and then threatened to burn the vehicle--and his fiancée with it. Moments later, the reportee said, the vehicle was on fire.
The man gave a different story, saying that he was simply putting fuel in the carburetor and trying to start it when it accidentally burst into flames.
The man was reportedly a methamphetamine user and had been awake for eight days. Since he had multiple burns and "did not feel too well," he was taken to the hospital--and later to jail.
Nobody was seriously injured.
Driving While Demented
West Magee Road, May 28, 1:05 p.m.
An intoxicated motorist allegedly threatened to kill a woman driving around on her lunch break, according to a PCSD report.
The woman reported that she was returning to work--driving normally--when a light-skinned, black-haired male in a white coupe rushed up behind her, slammed on his brakes, pulled up in the lane meant for oncoming traffic and tried to run her off the road, cursing and giving her the finger. He then followed her; when she pulled over for a truck, he pulled over, too, screaming, "You fucking bitch; I'm gonna kill you."
The investigating deputy located the man's residence with his license-plate number and confronted an intoxicated male who had a white car in his garage. First, the man denied involvement in the incident, insisting that the offender had, in fact, been an African American about 3 1/2 feet tall. After further questioning, however, he admitted that he had tailgated the reportee and probably did call her a "bitch." He denied threatening her.
The man was cited and released.
