Fort Worth Police and the Fort Worth Fire Department have made an arrest in a string of arson fires in the southern part of town. They believe the same person set fire to five cars from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day.
"We had a serial arsonist threatening the safety and property of our citizens," says Chief Fire Investigator David Jones.
Jones says Evan Banda, 17, set cars on fire in several neighborhoods south of I-20 starting Christmas Eve. In each case, Jones says Banda set the fires at night and walked to and from the scene so investigators could not connect one car to each fire.
"There was a definitive pattern," Jones says. "The similarities were identifiable, but he did not want to speak to the reasons or methods that he chose."
Jones says Fort Worth Police and the Fire Department worked together but have not identified a motive for the fires. He says investigators met with neighborhood groups to let people who live in the area know they were working to prevent "escalation" where the person might start setting fire to homes.
"We let them know we were working toward resolving that so they weren't fearful of having their property or houses burned," he says. "Then we went to work knocking on doors up and down the street day in and day out."
Police Chief Eddie Garcia says investigators from both departments combed neighborhoods of more than 2,500 homes to find information.
"All of our teams worked around the clock pushing beyond their scheduled shifts to make sure this investigation was conducted thoroughly and safely," Garcia says.
When Banda was identified as the suspect, Garcia says police went to his home. SWAT was called to make the arrest Wednesday evening. About six hours later, SWAT moved into the home "and immediately had the suspect in view."
"The suspect was then instructed to walk away from the residence and toward officers. He was taken into custody without incident. He was transported for questioning and then booked into our city jail," Garcia says.
Banda was then transferred to the Tarrant County Jail where he was listed as an inmate Friday afternoon.