Man accused of previous crimes, charged in fire at Fall River homeless encampment

A man has been arrested concerning a recent fire at a homeless encampment in Fall River.

At just after 5:30 p.m. on August 20th, multiple calls came into dispatch for a fire that broke out under the bridge at the Kennedy Park overlook.

Upon arrival, fire crews encountered an encampment ablaze with very heavy black smoke and a large fire below the overpass in the area of 1 Club Street.

Firefighters extinguished the flames in approximately 15 minutes.

According to Nichole Fontaine, Director of the City of Fall River’s Substance Abuse and Homeless Outreach Program, a suspect not part of the homeless encampment that is accused of crimes before the blaze, has been charged in the fire in an ordeal that lasted several days.

“(A victim) had called the Mayor’s Office the week before and they connected him with me. He stated a male had been going in his yard and had stolen a pair of his shorts off his clothesline. He couldn’t prove it was the male he thought he was, so, there wasn’t much I could do yet, but we did call the police to make a note of it. His truck window had also been smashed at some point this week but again, he couldn’t prove who did it.”

Fontaine stated that sometime later, the victim encountered the suspect face to face, and the highly intoxicated male tried to assault him with a wine bottle, however, the victim got the better of him and the suspect went to the hospital.

“The officer issued a summons to court since he was banged up and hoped he’d get treatment for the alcohol.”

With the victim nervous for when the suspect would get out of jail, Fontaine immediately went to the victim’s property and brought Police Lieutenant Burt & other members of the Fast Team.

“I contacted the chief, and we all agreed a summons wasn’t enough. We called in DPW to remove the 6 bikes (most likely stolen) & 2 shopping carts of stuff (the suspect) had stored behind the baseball field. Lt. Burt escalated the situation with police and had them patrolling the area for this man. We all waited about 2 hours for him to return to no avail. After another 2 hours or so I got the call from (the victim) & he also called PD.”

Fontaine saw the suspect walking barefoot in the pouring rain and followed him to a train track trail by the salt mill. Police quickly arrived and everyone searched for the suspect as he was now out of view. Less than 45 minutes later, he allegedly lit the fire at the encampment.

The suspect was placed on a section 35 (where he still resides) and was issued a no harassment order on the victim.

Fontaine noted that members of the homeless camp aided in the investigation as they had witnessed some of the suspect’s conduct and felt unsafe that he was nearby.

Since the blaze, the area has been cleaned by members of the encampment.

Fontaine could not confirm the name of the suspect.