Man Arrested In D.C. Area's Arson Wave

His apartment is in a two-story building, owned by his sister, in the 500 block of Lebaum Street SE, a quiet neighborhood just off Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and a block from St. Elizabeths Hospital.

Residents said they were shocked to learn that their neighbor, whom they described as a quiet man who often cut grass and picked up trash along the street, had been charged.

"He doesn't seem like the type," said Donald Langley, 55. "He kept to himself and was a nice guy."

The arrest brought relief to residents in neighborhoods hit by the arsonist.

"If he is the person, I'm really glad, because it's really dangerous to not know when they might strike next," said Neelie Thomas, whose home in the Hybla Valley area of Fairfax County was struck last May.

On a brick wall outside Reggie Weems's Bladensburg apartment, he can still see the silhouette of flames from a fire in January 2004. "Every time that I come out, I think about it," Weems said. "I'm happy they caught" a suspect.

Keith Haskins, who lives across from where Jones died in the fire at 2800 of Evarts Street NE, said some questions may finally be answered.

"Mrs. Jones was the neighborhood mama," Haskins said. "It was awful looking at her house all burned up like that, instead of seeing her planting her flowers or going to church and waving at folks."

A couple of blocks away on Yost Street NE, another street with neatly trimmed hedges and shady porches, Thomas Randolph also welcomed the arrest.

"It's some good news, at last," said Randolph, who lives next door to a home that was hit several months ago. "Whenever there's a breeze, you can still smell the burning wood. See, smell that?" he said, as an afternoon breeze skimmed across his porch and carried the acrid odor his way.

Staff writers Ruben Castaneda, D'Vera Cohn, Petula Dvorak, Manny Fernandez, Maria Glod, Hamil R. Harris, Tom Jackman, Allan Lengel, Sudarsan Raghavan, Katherine Shaver and Jamie Stockwell and staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.