Police looking for ‘person of interest’ in arson

By Brendan McNally

Police released four images Monday from surveillance video of a man buying what they said appears to be lighter fluid at a State College convenience store on the night of an arson at a Marine Corps recruiting office.

The State College Police department is calling the man a “person of interest” in their investigation.

The man in the images is buying what police said appears to be lighter fluid at about 2 a.m. Friday at the Uni-Mart, 401 S. Pugh St., the State College Police Department said.

The arson at the Marine Corps recruiting office, 242 S. Fraser St., was started sometime Thursday night or Friday morning through the mail slot in the back door of the building, police said.

Police said the man is of interest to the investigation because they believe that lighter fluid may have been the accelerant used to start the fire.

The fire caused minimal damage because it extinguished itself quickly, police said.

Police said they have linked the Marine Corps recruiting office arson to two other arsons that targeted State College Police Department police vehicles.

In the July 18 arson, an unmarked police cruiser was completely destroyed by a fire that police said was started by an accelerant.

Police said they have been waiting for test results of evidence collected by investigators in that arson — results that police said could help them determine exactly what accelerant was used to start the fire.

Police could not say how long it will be before the crime lab finishes its analysis.

In the meantime, the State College Police are continuing with their investigation in other ways.

State College resident David Wise, 18, said police contacted him sometime last week to conduct an interview about the arson that destroyed an unmarked police vehicle.

Wise said he met with police in the State College Borough Municipal Building for a 15-minute interview with an officer.

Police asked Wise where he had been at the time of the July 18 arson, but Wise said he was at home with his parents, Wise said.

Wise did not know why police decided to interview him, he said.

Wise said he is leaving for Marine Corps boot camp in two weeks.

Police also identified last week two other men of interest to their investigation that were seen on surveillance footage in a State College parking garage “at or around the time” that the police vehicle was destroyed on July 18.

Police have interviewed the two men and said they have cooperated fully with the investigation.

Wise said he doesn’t know either of the two men in the surveillance footage from the parking garage.

Police have also connected the Marine Corps recruiting office fire to a June 21 incident in which a homemade bomb was left on the trunk of a State College Police Department marked vehicle.

That homemade bomb was quickly extinguished by a State College police officer and caused only minor damage to the cruiser.

Read more here: http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2010/07/27/police_looking_for_person_of_i.aspx
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