Palmer man accused of arson, other crimes

PALMER — A 27-year-old man was jailed Tuesday, charged with trying to torch a downtown building while he and his neighbor were still inside.

According to the Palmer Police Department, shortly after 4:30 a.m. officers were called to 327 W. Evergreen — the building that houses the Liberty Tax office close to the entrance of Fred Meyer — for a report of a man breaking things in the hallway and the smell of something burning coming from his apartment.

Palmer Police Detective Sgt. Kelly Turney said officers Andy DeVeaux and Ed Mooney went to the scene. They found the individual in question was Brian McFadden, 27, of Palmer.

“The officer obviously could smell smoke and went down and noticed that there was a heavy layer of smoke inside his apartment,” Turney said.

So they got McFadden’s neighbor and her 6-month-old baby out of the building and called the fire department.

“There were several areas of scorching and burning inside the apartment,” including the floors, ceiling and windowsill, Turney said.

There was a smoldering, burning spiral notebook on the floor and a scorched dryer sheet stuffed into an air vent. Turney said McFadden talked to his neighbor at some point in the saga but there wasn’t any kind of an argument. Turney said he didn’t know what McFadden’s motives were but it could have had something to do with his personal life.

“We had heard he’d been upset possibly due to his girlfriend had recently broke up with him,” Turney said.

Still, Turney said, McFadden put his neighbor in danger. Especially since he was smashing things in the hall; blocking her means of escape.

“She honestly didn’t want to take her young infant child past him to get out,” Turney said.

The complaint filed in the case against McFadden alleges other bad behavior, including exposing himself to DeVeaux as the officer tried to coax him out of the building, cutting the phone lines to the building, and trying to kick the window out of a Palmer police car.

That last one led officers to deploy their pepper spray, Turney said, to save the window but also to save McFadden from injuring himself. He was barefoot at the time.

“Not only are you trying to stop a felony crime from being committed, but you’re trying to stop him from hurting himself.”

And that incident with the phone lines, Turney said, added to the danger facing McFadden’s neighbor, since it hampered her ability to summon help. Luckily, he said, the woman had a cell phone. Of course the tax preparation business wasn’t too happy about it.

“When the business attempted to open this morning it had no phones and no Internet,” Turney said.

Eventually, he said, Mooney and DeVeaux took McFadden to the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility where he was ordered held on $5,000 bail. Court records show he’s charged with arson, assault, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and indecent exposure.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 35 2-2270.