Yesterday afternoon, officers from District B-2 (Roxbury) arrested suspect, Paul Walker, 59, of Roxbury and charged him with Arson to a Motor Vehicle, Conspiracy to Violate the Drug Laws, Possession of Class B, Possession with Intent to Distribute Class B, Possession with Intent to Distribute Class B within 1,000’ of a School Zone, Possession of Class E, and Destruction of Personal Property.
Around 2:19PM on July 17, 2010, officers responded to the rear parking lot of 280 Martin Luther King Blvd. for a car on fire. On arrival, officers observed a car with fire damage to the roof with a partially burnt rag on the roof and a gas container on the ground in front of the car.
Officers spoke to the victim who reported that he was on the side of 280 MLK Blvd. when he observed the suspect leaning on the side of his car. The victim told officers that he asked the suspect what he was doing and the suspect answered by stating, “What are you going to do about it?!” The victim disregarded the suspect’s question and started walking toward the front of the building when he heard people yelling, “He is lighting your car on fire!” The victim reported that he turned around just in time to see the suspect use a lighter to set a cloth rag that was on the roof of his car on fire. The victim then provided officers with the suspect’s name and address.
Officers then followed the victim to his apartment building and while in the lobby of the building, the victim pointed to the suspect who was sitting in the lobby holding a lighter in his hands and exclaimed, “That’s him right there!” Officers then removed the lighter from the suspect and placed him in handcuffs. While removing the lighter from the suspect’s hands, he told officers, “That’s what I used right there!” The suspect was placed under arrest and during a search of his person, officers retrieved a plastic sandwich bag from with several individually packaged white rocklike substances believed to be crack cocaine. As officers were searching the suspect, he told officers that he burned the victim’s car because the victim called his girlfriend a bitch. Officers through search of the suspect also recovered a plastic bag with an unknown white powder believed to be some kind of crushed prescription pill.
Officers located a victim who told officers that he witnessed the suspect leave the building holding a gas container and exit the rear door of the building which leads to where the victim’s car was parked. The witness further stated that a short time later he observed the suspect re-enter the building sweating profusely and sit down in a chair in the lobby.
The suspect, Paul Walker will be arraigned at Roxbury District Court on Monday, July 19, 2010.