A 32-year-old man set fire to the Canby Park Estates home where he rented a room after barricading himself inside to avoid police Tuesday morning, according to a Wilmington Police Department spokesperson.
The man was injured in the fire and taken to the hospital, police said. Officials have not publicly said what charges the man faces or why they were there to arrest him Tuesday morning.
Next-door neighbor Katy Ayala said she saw at least six police cars pull up on the street early Tuesday — at 6:45 a.m., according to police. She said that one officer eventually coaxed the man out of the house he’d barricaded himself in, but he then ran back inside.
The man said he would keep setting fires and wanted to “blow up the house,” Ayala said.
The man rented a room in the 1900 block of Lakeview Road from Francis R. Smith Jr., who also lived at the house. Smith said the 32-year-old had recently been asked to leave after he stopped paying rent.
Smith was woken up at about 6 a.m. on Tuesday by police knocking on the door. Officers told Smith to leave the townhouse, he said, and he was taken to sit in a police car for about four hours. Residents of nearby homes were also evacuated.
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Smith didn’t even have time to get his shoes — when he came back later after the fire had been put out, a neighbor gave him a pair of pink Crocs to borrow. He stood on the sidewalk outside the building he’d called home for two years, its insides blackened with smoke. A pile of smashed windows rested on the ground outside, though one still hung haphazardly from the upstairs window sill.
Canby Park Estates resident Yazahani Sanchez said the 32-year-old man shot out of the second-story window while barricading himself inside. Sanchez was getting into her car on the next street over when she said police told her to go back inside because of an active shooter.
She’d heard what she initially thought were fireworks earlier, which she then realized were gunshots.
When asked, Wilmington Police Department said no shots were fired.
Sanchez took videos of smoke billowing out of the townhouse across the street and police carrying rifles trying to break the door down.
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After the 32-year-old man was taken to the hospital, Canby Park Estates residents sat on their front stoops and leaned out of doorways up and down Lakeview Road.
Most didn’t know the 32-year-old man, who Ayala said would often knock on neighbors’ doors and try to sell them things on the street. Ayala said there were often a lot of people going in and out of the now-burnt house.
The Wilmington Fire Department did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on Twitter at @h_edelman.
