CHARLOTTE — Omar Rosales, 32, is accused of a string of arson that targeted occupied homes, gas stations, and a Duke Energy tower at locations from SouthPark to Albemarle Road.
A resident at one of the apartment complexes said he noticed something unusual late Tuesday afternoon.
“Earlier I smelt like gasoline,” said Jermaine Williams, a resident at a SouthPark apartment complex. “I didn’t think anything of it. I thought it was the heat.”
Williams said he saw something outside.
“I saw a flashlight by my window, wasn’t too sure, so I just thought it was maintenance,” he said.
He might have witnessed an arson in progress, according to the police.
“It’s crazy. It’s crazy that it even got this close to me,” he said. “It can happen to anybody, you know? You just got to be safe out here.”
Rosales set fires at about six places across Charlotte between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to police documents.
He lit a bottle of gasoline on top of gas tanks at the Sam’s Mart on Providence Road, police said.
He set a fire at the Essex condominiums on Sardis Road while people were home, according to police.
He also struck at a Duke Energy tower on Reddman Road, and an Exxon on Albemarle Road.
The owner of HHM Tobacco and Vape said Rosales set a fire inside his store off Albemarle Road.
Juan Juarez is a barber in the same shopping center as the vape shop.
“I came over here and I see all the T-shirts, was like burnt and they told me some guy came in here he lit it on fire with some gasoline and he just ran off like it’s a movie,” Juarez said.
Police said Rosales used a Molotov cocktail in one of the arsons.
Rosales was arrested and faces charges, including arson, burning personal and commercial property, and possession of a weapon of mass destruction for that Molotov cocktail.
Sources said it appears the suspect targeted the victims at random.
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