EVERETT — Through papers to the county prosecutor’s office, Everett Police has identified the suspect detectives say is responsible for the fire that destroyed the Judd & Black appliance store in downtown last year.
Police referred charges of first degree arson to the prosecutor’s office on a 19-year-old man from Everett for the fire.
The Tribune is not naming the suspect because the paper does not have confirmation the prosecutor’s office has determined whether to charge the suspect.
Police received tips after the fire happened that the man was bragging about it to friends.
The documents do not point to a clear motive for the Judd & Black fire.
The suspect was 18 when the fire was intentionally set in a dumpster next to Judd & Black on Sept. 21, 2018.
The suspect named is currently serving time in prison for an
unrelated arson at an abandoned Everett house in downtown. State Department of Corrections inmate records show he is in the prison in Shelton.
Detectives interviewed the suspect and when they told him he’d be charged for first degree arson for the Judd & Black fire, a document says he replied he can’t be charged with first degree because that indicates malice against Judd & Black. He said this wasn’t a malicious fire.
“This statement confirmed that he was there and caused the fire but was attempting to imply the fire was not maliciously set,” a detective wrote in the probable cause document.
In the house fire he went to prison for, the suspect pleaded guilty.
Investigators announced in January they determined Judd & Black was an arson.
For the Judd & Black fire, police wrote that the suspect set the styrofoam and cardboard boxes in the dumpster alight, and the fire quickly got into the building where it wreaked damage and created a three-alarm fire.
The structure, built in 1892, was not equipped with fire sprinklers. Fire investigators estimated the loss at $3.5 million: the loss of the building was estimated at $1.5 million, and there was an estimated loss of $2 million in inventory.
The city has repeatedly declined requests to provide the fire reports to the Tribune, most recently in early July, stating that it can’t because the fire is under an active police investigation.
The store was Judd & Black’s flagship store, dating to 1962. The building was torn down last month after standing as a gutted, burnt building for months.
Judd & Black opened a replacement Everett store on Everett Mall Way this year.
