A 32-year-old man was jailed in lieu of $1 million bail Tuesday for allegedly setting fire to some cardboard boxes sheltering a sleeping person in Glendale.
Richard Smallets was arrested Sept. 12, after police and firefighters responded about 1:20 a.m. to a small fire on a sidewalk near Harvard Street and Brand Boulevard, according to Glendale Police Department spokeswoman Tahnee Lightfoot.
Investigators learned a homeless man was sleeping under cardboard boxes and was awakened by the smell of smoke, Lightfoot said. The man realized his makeshift shelter was on fire and he tried unsuccessfully to put it out with bottled water, she said.
Fire crews doused the flames but later that day, police detectives retrieved surveillance video from a nearby business and saw a male suspect intentionally lighting the cardboard on fire and then taking photos, according to Lightfoot.
“Detectives continued their investigation and contacted a male, identified as Richard Smallets, at Central Park,” Lightfoot said. “After questioning Smallets, detectives connected him to the arson investigation and he was subsequently placed under arrest.”
On Sept. 13, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office charged Smallets with attempted murder, Lightfoot said.