Officer was head butted during arrest, court told

A young Whitehorse man accused of setting fire to a truck in Porter Creek remains behind bars after a judge refused him bail.

A young Whitehorse man accused of setting fire to a truck in Porter Creek remains behind bars after a judge refused him bail.

Daniel Arnold is charged with a number of offences, including assaulting a police officer, mischief and arson.

He was first arrested on June 27 after a downtown resident called police to report someone vandalizing city property in Rotary Peace Park.

Officers did foot patrols of the park area, then moved into Riverdale, where they eventually encountered three teenaged boys who fit the description given by the complainant.

Arnold was one of the boys, and police described him as having “a very strong odour of liquor on his breath and glossy, glazed eyes.”

The other two boys allegedly told the officers that Arnold had found a sledgehammer near The Old Fire Hall and used it to smash two pickets from a fence around a nearby city building.

One of them apparently told police Arnold “gets stupid when he drinks.”

The officers cuffed Arnold, who allegedly gave one of the arresting officers a head butt as he tried to search Arnold’s pockets, Crown prosecutor Thomas Lemon told the court during Arnold’s July 20 bail hearing.

The 19-year-old was released on conditions, but was back in trouble a few weeks later.

Early on Monday, July 11, police received a call from a Porter Creek resident reporting a vehicle fire, the seventh during the July 9-10 weekend alone.

According to the Crown’s account of the incident, a resident of Elm Street went to his window after hearing a commotion outside and saw three youths standing around a truck in a neighbouring driveway.

He quickly wakened his neighbours and tried to stop the boys from running away.

The man got into a tussle with Arnold, and the young man allegedly struck the neighbour twice in the head and got away.

The owner of the truck chased down the other two boys, tackling them to the ground and holding them until police arrived. Meanwhile, another neighbour found a fire extinguisher and managed to put out the blaze in the truck.

There were three cans of racing fuel in the back of the truck, and more fuel in several of the other vehicles in the driveway, the Crown told the court during the hearing, and if the flames had gotten out of control, the fire likely would have caused far more damage than it did.

According to the Crown, the two other boys said they came upon Arnold pouring lighter fluid on the truck and moved away because they didn’t want to get caught with him.

None of the allegations against Arnold have been proven in court, nor admitted to by Arnold.

The truck fire was just one of a rash of fires in Whitehorse that weekend.

On the night of Friday, July 8, one motorcycle and a truck were burned, and on the Saturday, three motorcycles and a car were set on fire.

Arnold has not been charged with any of the other fires, and his lawyer pointed out there is no evidence to connect him to the crimes.

But the charges at hand were enough to convince a territorial court judge to keep Arnold behind bars.

His next court date has not been set.

By Justine davidson
Star Reporter