Man Charged With Attempted Murder For Allegedly Setting Fire To Glendale Homeless Encampment
GLENDALE (CBSLA) — A man police say intentionally set fire to a homeless encampment in Glendale and then took photos of the flames has been charged with attempted murder.
Richard Smallets, 32, is scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday on attempted murder charges.
Glendale police say they were called early Sept. 12 to help firefighters with a small fire on the sidewalk in the area of Harvard Street and Brand Boulevard. They determined that a homeless man had been sleeping under cardboard boxes when he woke up to the smell of smoke and realized the cardboard was on fire. The homeless man tried to put out the flames with bottled water before firefighters arrived on the scene.
Surveillance video from a nearby business showed a man had intentionally lit the cardboard on fire, then took photos, police said. The man was identified as Smallets, who was found at Central Park and arrested.
Smallets is being held on $1 million bail.