Crime & Safety

Psych Evaluation for Saline Man Who Set Fire to Apartment

Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze in an apartment building on the 200 block of Clark Street.

A 22-year-old man who confessed to setting a fire in his Clark Street apartment has been transferred to Samaritan Hospital in Detroit for a psychological evaluation as the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s office considers issuing a warrant for his arrest, according to records.

The man believed responsible for the blaze, which was quickly put down by the , was the only person injured in the fire. He was treated at for minor injuries.

Just after 6 p.m. Feb. 29, Ann Arbor Police Police received a call from a young male who stated there was going to be a fire at the Clark Street apartment and, according to the report, when asked how he knew there was going to be a fire, the call said, “Because I just set it.”

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Saline Police Department dispatched fire and police to the apartments. Firefighter Brandon Sears found a fire on a gas stove flaming up the wall. All four burners were on. Sears extinguished the blaze and determined there were no others present in the apartment. Police determined there were four other apartments occupied at the time of the fire, according to the report.

Police were then notified by dispatch that hospital security had located the apartment’s occupant at the emergency room at St. Joseph’s. The man was being treated for cuts he had all over his body. Police took an eight-inch switchblade that was removed from the suspect’s belongings by hospital security, according to the report.

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The man told police that he set the fire because he was depressed and bipolar and he thought jail was the best place for him at this time, according to the report.


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