string of arsons<\/a> in a South Fort Worth neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\nLayal Awde and her family ended up being one of several victims targeted by an arson suspect.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look outside, and the car is on fire, it looks like a big explosion, and my mom was sleeping, and I start yelling out, there\u2019s a fire, there\u2019s a fire,\u201d Awde said.<\/p>\n
The vehicle, specially equipped for Layal Awde\u2019s paraplegic brother, caught fire on Dec. 31. Awde said she heard the fire outside and immediately searched for her brother, fearing he might have been inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went downstairs to make sure my brother wasn\u2019t in the car. And thankfully, he wasn\u2019t, because he sometimes smoked cigarettes,\u201d Layal Awde said.<\/p>\n
Investigators say the fire was one of five vehicle fires set in the same South Fort Worth neighborhood between Christmas Eve and New Year\u2019s Day. Authorities say all five were intentionally set by the same person, identified as 17-year-old Evan Banda.<\/p>\n
Interim Fort Worth Fire Chief Ray Hill announced the arrest following a joint investigation between the Fort Worth Fire Department and the Fort Worth Police Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese fires were set during late-night hours, typically between 11 [p.m.] and 2 a.m., and followed a certain pattern,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all able to collaborate as a team. It\u2019s amazing. I think we are all happy about it, with this particular case,\u201d Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia said.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, investigators identified Banda based on his clothing and hairstyle, which were captured on home security cameras. Investigators say the fires were set after Banda found unlocked vehicles parked out of plain view during overnight hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am relieved that he is no longer on the street,\u201d said Michelle Barrera, whose family had a vehicle among those set on fire.<\/p>\n
While grateful no one was injured, Barrera said the incident left a lasting impact on her family and the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe effect that he put on our family and on our community, the scare that we had, but I would also want him to get help,\u201d Barrera said.<\/p>\n
Authorities confirmed during a news conference that although Banda is 17, he is being charged as an adult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI went downstairs to make sure my brother wasn\u2019t in the car. And thankfully, he wasn\u2019t, because he…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":504938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-504937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115868023146203429","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}