Detective: Arson suspect fought with his mother before fire | Crime

CLARK COUNTY, Wash. - A 16-year-old boy accused of burning down his family’s house had a fight with his mother before the fire started, a Clark County Sheriff’s detective wrote in court documents.

Police arrested and charged the boy with arson after the fire in Clark County’s Sifton neighborhood on Friday. The house was a total loss.

In a court document leading up to his arrest, Detective Todd Barsness wrote the suspect’s brother first indicated that the boy had set the fire. When Barsness spoke to his mother, she said the two had a fight earlier in the day.

According to the court documents, the suspect’s mother said “she and (the suspect) had argued this morning and then she left. She returned after speaking with (the suspect) on the phone and him telling her ‘you will be sorry.’”

• Read the court document

KATU is not identifying the suspect because he is a minor. The boy made his first appearance in juvenile court on Monday.

The suspect’s mother returned home and smelled smoke. That’s when the detective said she grabbed the other children in the house. She told investigators she had to “drag (the suspect) out of the house.”

“I spoke to (the suspect) who said that he was upset, retrieved a gas can from the shed and lit the house on fire,” Barsness wrote.

“He was a very good kid, I mean really good friends with a lot of the kids in the neighborhood, so we were very surprised,” said neighbor Charmene Hernandez.

Wyatt Royce has been friends with the accused boy since third grade. They often played sports together in the neighborhood and at home.

“We always hang out, shoot hoops, throw the football around,” he said. “I don’t know him as a bad kid, always been good to me when I’m around him.”

KATU reporters Bob Heye, Tim Gordon and KATU.com producer John Tierney contributed to this report.