VIDEO: How a Toyota Car is Set on Fire. Police Capture the Arsonist

In the yard of one of the houses on Yerevanyan Street in Abovyan, a car was burning on the night of November 17. Upon receiving the alert from the operational management center, officers from the Kotayk Division of the Police proceeded to the specified address. The owners of the house, along with firefighters, managed to extinguish the fire. No citizens sustained injuries.

An inspection of the scene showed that the cause of the ignition was not due to a malfunction of the vehicle; someone had deliberately set fire to a damaged Toyota that the owner had left near a craftsman’s house for repairs. The car repair point was also not far from the house.

The law enforcement agencies knew that the motives for causing significant property damage could be diverse: hooligan impulses, revenge, jealousy. It was necessary to determine whether the arsonist had strained interpersonal relationships with either the car owner or the craftsman.

The investigative body undertook extensive measures to uncover the case. Various hypotheses were proposed and checked. Video footage from cameras installed near adjacent houses and businesses was studied. The surveillance devices captured the incident of the car being set on fire. However, there was not a clear understanding of the physical characteristics of the suspect.

The measures continued, and officers from the Kotayk regional department of police also joined the efforts. Joint work yielded positive results days later. By correlating data obtained from the scene and information received, law enforcement officials established that the Toyota was likely set ablaze by a 45-year-old resident of Brotherhood Street in Abovyan.

On November 25, the suspect was taken to the Kotayk division of the police. The man taken into custody was a neighbor of the craftsman involved in the car parts trade, and according to preliminary data, he took this step due to disagreements over practical matters. The circumstances are under investigation. The preliminary investigation into the criminal case continues.