Man Wanted In New Year's Day Arson Captured
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The latest man dubbed "Public Enemy No. 1" by Baltimore City police is captured days after investigators say he set fire to a home and blocked the exits so no one could get out.
A 61-year-old woman died in the fire.
Derek Valcourt with more on where he was arrested.
That man was arrested when he was found hiding in a vacant home in East Baltimore. WJZ has learned the woman who died in the fire was the mother of a Baltimore City firefighter.
Baltimore's Public Enemy No. 1 Alan Floyd is now behind bars after police plastered his face all over the news.
"We will make sure everyone knows exactly who you are and exactly what you did--not only to the victim, but to this city," said Commissioner Kevin Davis, Baltimore Police Department.
Police say the 59-year-old blocked two people inside a room in a home in the 2300 block of E. Madison Street Friday morning and then lit the house on fire.
Neighbors frantically tried to save the people who were trapped; only one made it out alive.
Police believe Floyd had an ongoing dispute with someone in the house, but 61-year-old Sharon Williams, who died in the fire, was not who he was targeting.
His landlord tells WJZ he was a difficult person.
"He seemed like he just couldn't get along with anybody. There were people living next door here before these people moved in--a couple that I've known for years--and he couldn't get along with them," Floyd's landlord said.
After the fire, Floyd didn't go far. Police say tips led them right around the corner from the crime scene in the 800 block of Montford Avenue, where he was found hiding in a vacant building.
Police say Floyd was armed with knives, but did not resist arrest.
"Ironically enough, officers had to take him to the hospital because he actually had some burns on him. And they took him to the hospital for those burns to be treated, assuming those burns could be from the incident on New Year's Day," said T.J. Smith, Baltimore City Police Department.
Police say Floyd will now face justice for the city's first murder of 2016.
Investigators are crediting tips from citizens with helping them track down exactly where Floyd was hiding.
Floyd has a history of drug arrests and convictions for assault and handgun violations.
