At around 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 29, a loud noise woke A Street resident Joy Pohl. It was the paper being delivered, she thought at first. Then, the sound repeated and the phone rang.
“Are you looking out your window?” a neighbor asked when Pohl picked up. “A car is on fire.”
Pohl ran downstairs, followed by Fran Tomilson, her wife.
The two discovered a blazing inferno outside their front door. Flames climbing ten feet high engulfed a parked vehicle.
Tomilson and Pohl knew the car. It was the pride and joy of neighbors Gene Berry and Jeff Campbell. The two had purchased the white Porsche 911 six months earlier.
The fire quickly spread to a tree above and the dry, fallen leaves below the car. Then to another car parked behind. Neighbors pulled out garden hoses, dousing the grass and the tree to prevent the blaze spreading to adjacent houses. As sirens signaled the arrival of DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services (DCFEMS), they watched the vehicles burn.
“It still took them forever to get the fire out, I guess because of the gasoline or something,” Pohl said.
As the fire burned, a preliminary assessment by the DC Fire Inspector deemed it accidental, due to a possible battery malfunction. Berry was very doubtful. He and Campbell had recently taken it on a multi-day road trip, with no issues.
Neighbors Investigate
Berry started investigating, canvassing the neighborhood. He posted flyers. He then walked the street, stopping wherever he saw a camera, leaving flyers and knocking on doors.
At least three neighbors provided him with security footage. Their cameras catch images of a man wearing a long dark coat, jeans and a very long white scarf. One captured him throwing an object, followed by a blast of light off-screen. Another video showed the same figure walking across the screen. Moments later, there was a burst of light.
Berry shared the videos with the fire inspector. The official assessed the now cold car at a city lot. He then reclassified the fire as incendiary — deliberately set.
More Questions Than Answers
The inspector’s conclusion raised more questions for Berry and Campbell. They wondered: Who would bomb their car? Were they targeted because of their same-sex relationship? Was the neighborhood targeted due to the presence of various political organizations?
The following Sunday, Berry and Campbell decided to clean up their street. As they swept, Berry looked up to see a man walking by, holding a book in one hand and a clear plastic water bottle in the other. He was wearing a long dark coat and jeans. He had wrapped a white blanket around his neck like a scarf.
The two had watched the surveillance video from the morning of the fire over and over. They were sure it was the same man.
“None of the videos show his face,” Campbell said. “But his outfit was so distinctive. When we saw him walking by the other day, we just knew: that is the guy.”
The two men shadowed the individual from a distance. Eventually, they called the police to report the man and the direction he was traveling, sending a photo they discreetly took.
Police caution civilians against engaging in this kind of behavior. However, Pohl and Tomilson say this is typical of their proactive, tight-knit community. ”Sometimes you’ll hear somebody yell, “help” on the street, or just yell,” Pohl said, “[and] people go charging out of their houses.”
After Campbell’s call, MPD sent a patrol car to Campbell’s home and they went in search of the man Campbell had reported seeing. Campbell spotted him on H Street NE and, after letting Campbell out of the car, the officer arrested the man. The suspect appeared to be suffering from mental health issues, officers later informed Campbell.
The man identified in the police report lives within walking distance of the fire. An individual with the same name has a profile on Facebook. However, the has been inactive since last year. (The Hill Rag does not publish names of people who have not been convicted of a crime.) Many of those posts reference cars together with Biblical imagery, the devil and his family.
“ADAM AND EVE, EVE AND THE SERPENT, JESUS JESUS JESUS, MOTHER EARTH, AND THE SPIRIT ANGELS AMEN,” reads the last post dated Oct. 29, 20223, exactly a year before the fire.
The arrested man has since been released. The US Attorney’s Office (USAO) found insufficient evidence to prosecute, it stated in an email to DC Fire Investigators.
“Unfortunately, the only “ID” we have of the perpetrator is video that is distant and grainy, not “ID quality” video,” the USAO said in their email. “Because the parties do not know each other, there is no way for us, at this point with what I have been provided, to prove that the person arrested is the person in these videos.”
The USAO did not respond to a request for comment from the Hill Rag. Fire officials say the case is still under investigation.
Insufficient ID
In order to arrest a suspect, officers need probable cause. In other words, the reasonable belief that a person has committed a crime. In order to secure a conviction, USAO prosecutors must prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, a much higher standard. The USAO requires an iron-clad level of proof before they charge, stated US Attorney Matthew M. Graves.
“We are not ever going to charge a crime that we do not believe in good faith we have the evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” Graves said at a 2024 on carjacking.
The outfit worn in the video is itself unique enough to identify the man, Berry, Campbell and their neighbors believe. In other cases, clothing has been used as part of identification. For instance, court documents from the Sept. 5, 2023 shooting at 222 M St. SW employed clothing to link a shooting and robbery to patients who later entered a hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds.
But that identification went together with plenty of other evidence. An identification using clothing would be insufficient to stand on its own, stated a witness identification expert and practicing defense attorney. Research shows that humans are notoriously bad at identification, especially across races, the attorney stated. Prosecutors should obtain independent corroboration before charging someone with a crime –even where there has been a positive identification, the expert said.
Once a week, Berry and Campbell’s block gathers to socialize, referring to themselves in jest as the Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC). The incident has dominated their discussions. Is there a mentally troubled arsonist loose in the neighborhood? neighbors wondered.
There is sufficient cause to get a protective order against the man, police told neighbors.
Mental Health Should be Addressed
But keeping the suspect out of the neighborhood does not address the true nature of the problem, Berry said. “Our main thing is to get him off the street and to get him the help he needs,” he said.
The community brainstormed ways to help. Having read the police report, Berry and Campbell know the arrested man lives close by. Working with church outreach groups, neighbors begun efforts to provide the man with and assistance. In the meantime, Berry and Campbell alerted nearby schools and landmarks, such as Eastern Market, of the situation.
DCFEMS considers the incident still under investigation. The man is innocent until proven guity and has not been charged. But until an arrest is made, an arsonist is wandering the streets, said Berry. Just in case, he and his neighbors have purchased new fire extinguishers.
“It could happen again, that’s what we fear,” Berry said. “Next time, it could be a house and someone could be really hurt. Or worse.”
This article appears in the December print issue of the Hill Rag under the title Charges Dropped Against Hill Arson Suspect. It has been retitled to reflect the fact that the individual was arrested in this case but has not been charged with a crime. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The Hill Rag regrets any confusion as a result of the previous title.
