MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — A man was arrested Saturday after allegedly breaking in and setting a fire at the Mount Vernon Police Department, officials said.
Mount Vernon police received a call around 10 p.m. Friday from a man at the police department’s main campus who said he was being chased by people who had weapons and were trying to harm him.
Officers responded and found a 31-year-old Mount Vernon man a block from the station who was “acting erratic and had blood on his hands,” according to a department release.
When officers were talking to the man, they head alarm sounds coming from the department’s campus.
An officer went to investigate the alarm and found a broken window, smoke and a small fire in one of the work areas. He extinguished the fire.
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Mount Vernon officers asked for help from the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office, and detectives from the sheriff’s office took over the investigation.
An initial investigation indicates that the man “had consumed illegal drugs and was suffering from delusions,” a release from the department said. He allegedly went to the department trying to get away from people he believed were trying to harm him, broke through the window and called 911. While inside, he set the fire “intending to throw off his fictitious attackers,” police said.
The man was taken to the Skagit Valley Hospital for treatment and was later booked into the Skagit County Justice Center for investigation of arson and burglary.
A release from Police Chief Chris Cammock said no sensitive material such as records or evidence were disturbed in the building while the man was inside.
Cox Media Group
