Arsons in Md. May Have Been Racially Motivated
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INDIAN HEAD, Md. – Racial animosity and revenge are among the possible motives in the fires that caused $10 million in damage in Maryland’s largest residential arson case, a spokesman for federal investigators said yesterday.
Four men have been charged with arson at the Hunters Brooke development in Indian Head, where fires on December 6 destroyed 10 houses and damaged 16 others. No one was hurt; many of the homes were still under construction.
A federal law enforcement official speaking on the condition of anonymity said two of the four suspects in custody allegedly made racial statements to investigators during questioning.
The suspects are white, and many of the families moving into the development are black.
The federal official also said that one of the suspects, Jeremy Daniel Parady, was turned down when he tried to get a job with Lennar Corporation, the company building the houses about 30 miles south of Washington.
Another suspect, Aaron Speed, told investigators he was upset his employer did not show enough sympathy after his infant son died this year, according to court documents.
Michael Campbell, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, said investigators are considering revenge and race, along with several other possible motives. None of the suspects has been charged with a hate crime.
On Saturday, officials arrested three of the men – Mr. Parady, Patrick Stephen Walsh, and Michael McIntosh Everhart, all 20. They were to appear Monday before a U.S. magistrate judge in Greenbelt. Mr. Speed, 21, who worked for a security company hired to guard the development, is being held until a hearing tomorrow.
Initially, there was speculation the fires were set by environmental extremists because some environmental groups had complained the houses threatened a nearby bog. No evidence has been found to support that theory, police said.
Attention then turned to whether the arsons could have been racially motivated. While many of the buyers of the half-million-dollar homes were black, Charles County is largely rural and mostly white.
