SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 20, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) -- A Salt Lake City man was arrested Saturday for property damage/destruction causing a loss valued at greater than $5,000.
Salt Lake City Police and Fire departments responded Saturday evening to 258 W. 700 South, the address of Moda Granary Place townhouses, after a fire alarm was activated.
The 25-year-old suspect told arriving officers "he had started a fire in his apartment then jumped off his balcony to get away from a man with a gun in the hallway outside his apartment door."
He was transported to a hospital, where an officer met with him and read him his Miranda rights, arrest documents say.
He said he "understood his rights and still wished to speak with me. The suspect advised that he had seen an unknown person outside his apartment with a rifle standing there for hours. He stated that he thought the unknown person tried to open his locked door, which caused him to fear for his safety."
The suspect told the investigator that he did not start a fire, as he had previously stated. Instead, "he set off the apartment's fire sprinkler system by breaking a sprinkler head in his apartment.
His charging document says the 25-year-old stated that "there was no fire and that he intentionally set off the sprinkler system.
Investigators contacted the property manager who said the minimum estimated damages to the apartment complex due to the sprinkler system being set off were around $20,000 due to the water damages to at least two apartments.
The suspect was arrested and taken to Salt Lake County jail, where he was booked for investigation of property damage/destruction, which the SLCPD classified as a second-degree felony.
Charges filed, if any, will be determined by the Salt Lake County Attorney's Office.
