{"id":11269,"date":"2022-11-11T22:06:58","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T22:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/?p=11269"},"modified":"2022-11-11T22:13:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T22:13:15","slug":"suspect-arrested-in-connection-to-setting-seven-fires-in-west-jackson-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/2022\/11\/11\/suspect-arrested-in-connection-to-setting-seven-fires-in-west-jackson-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect arrested in connection to setting seven fires in West Jackson community"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Image: Epiphany Church goes with the Community surrounding JSU (Local News) &#8211; Google Image<\/em><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tatyana Ross<br \/>\nEditor-in-Chief<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jackson State University students and employees awoke to the news that seven fires had been intentionally set in the surrounding community, including one at the JSU baseball field.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fires were mysteriously set on eve of the important midterm elections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to WLBT News, the suspect has been identified as 23-year-old Devin McLaurin. Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones said McLaurin was arrested in Terry, Miss., after a tip. McLaurin is expected to be transferred to the Jackson Police Department for further questioning with representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigations in attendance to see if any hate crimes were committed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JSU students had this to say about the fires.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alfred Allen, a freshman biology\/pre-medicine major from Milwaukee, Wis. said that he believes the arson incidents were alarming to students and motivated by malice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMore often, numerous fires can point towards arson in which malcontent is the motive. This should be top priority for the Jackson Police Department (JPD),\u201d said Allen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Henry Pegues also feels that these incidents should be priority for JPD.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey need to investigate where this person came from and also find ways to prevent this from happening again,\u201d said Pegues, a junior journalism and media studies major from Clinton, Miss.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stanley Powell, a freshman theatre\u00a0major from Crystal Springs, Miss., was surprised by the incidents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI kind of feel like it\u2019s really weird. Like I wouldn\u2019t expect someone to burn down several areas and so this really caught me off guard with the recent places being set on fire,\u201d said Powell.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The seven locations set on fire included:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greater Bethlehem Temple Church<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Epiphany Church at 1230 Isaiah Montgomery<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baseball Field on JSU Campus<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gas Station on Terry Road<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Central Street and Dalton<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1101 Pascagoula Street<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terry Road and Cherry Street<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public Safety at Jackson State released the following alert to students and employees via email on Nov. 8. It read in part:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Department of Public Safety is working with local and state law enforcement and fire officials to solve the arsons which took place this morning\u00a0on and around the JSU campus. A person of interest has been identified.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crime Alerts and updates are posted in an effort to make the JSU community aware of any situation that has posed a potential threat to the safety and well-being of those who live, work, study and visit the campus. By keeping you aware of crimes occurring in your community, JSU Department of Public Safety hope to encourage you to continue being actively involved in crime<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">prevention and reporting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Students at Jackson State University and residents of the West Jackson community are eager to find out the motivation for the rash of arson incidents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI feel that\u2019s it goes to show that people really don\u2019t care about the things they do or the people it will affect,\u201d said Da\u2019Maje Russell, a freshman chemistry major from Memphis, Tenn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brylyia Baptiste, a junior early childhood education major from New Orleans, La., was concerned about the well-being of herself and her peers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPersonally, because of the incidents around our school, this makes me worry about not only my safety but other students as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tatyana Ross and Alivia Welch contributed to this article.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: Epiphany Church goes with the Community surrounding JSU (Local News) &#8211; Google Image Tatyana Ross Editor-in-Chief Jackson State University students and employees awoke to the news that seven fires had been intentionally set in the surrounding community, including one at the JSU baseball field. The fires were mysteriously set on eve of the important [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11280,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11269\/revisions\/11280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}