Authorities have arrested a suspect in the Christmas Eve fire at the Hammond Walmart. State Fire Marshal’s spokeswoman Ashley Rodrigue said media exposure of the man’s picture led 39-year-old Terrence Michael Coe, of Hammond, to call investigators and confess.
“The word that media partners such as yourself did to spread that message so quickly and so much actually drove that suspect to reach out to us to beg to stop putting his picture out,” Rodrigue said.
Rodrigue said Coe admitted he set the fire as a distraction.
“Once we had him in custody he did confess that it was him and the reason why he did that was that he was trying to cover his tracks to steal from the store,” she said.
Rodrigue said there were more than 500 customers and employees in the store at the time—but damage to the store was contained because of help from some of those customers.
“The fire remained in just in the aisle where he started, the paint aisle, because there were very quick moving customers and employees who located the required fire extinguishers in the store and were able to put it out,” she said.
Coe is charged with aggravated Attempted 2nd Degree Murder, Aggravated Arson, and Armed Robbery and Terrorism. The store has now reopened.
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