A man who allegedly set fire to several vehicles Monday night, including a Seattle police car, was charged Thursday with first degree arson.
The incident unfolded just after 8:30 p.m. Monday after officers responded to a report of a family disturbance in the 2500 block of 24th Avenue West, said Lauren Lovanhill of the Seattle police. When officers arrived at the scene, they found Phillip L. Schloredt in the street holding a large object and pouring flammable liquid on a truck, according to police. Police say Schloredt spotted the officers and proceeded to light the liquid on fire.
As the fire flared up, police say Schloredt kept pouring more liquid on the flames until it turned into a large blaze. He then allegedly threw the object at one of the officers as the blaze grew, igniting three other vehicles on fire, including an SPD patrol car.
Officers used their in-car fire extinguishers to extinguish most of the flames. Officers chased after the suspect as he ran from the scene, but they were unable to catch him.
Later, an employee from BNSF Railway spotted a man matching the suspect's description running across the train tracks toward the golf course and called 911 to report it.
With this information, officers surrounded both sides of the thicket of blackberry bushes leading to the golf course. Officers yelled into the bushes until finally they got a reply from the suspect. Eventually they were able to convince him to give himself up and get himself out of the bushes.