Company Says It Will Re-Build
A 19 year-old man was arrested for setting the fire Sunday evening, Feb. 9, that heavily damaged the Dollar General Market, on U.S. 31, in Austin.
The community’s only grocery store just been opened for just three months.
Jalen Elisha Dominique May of Pearl Street in Austin was arrested after police spoke with him and other witnesses, Austin Police Chief Shawn Hurt said.
Police and fire departments arrived at the scene around 7:40 p.m., said Jennings Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief Joe Smith.
Firefighters were met with heavy smoke coming from the roof of the all steel structure.
Assisting at the scene were fire departments from Scottsburg, Johnson Township, Deputy, and Hanover, Smith said.
Firefighters were on the scene for a little over four hours.
Smith said insurance company engineers will test the structural steel to see if it is damaged.
“I feel Dollar General officials are leaning toward a total loss,” the fire chief said. “They did say that the company intends to re-build.”
Austin Police officer Brian Smith was the first on the scene of the fire and made sure everyone was out of the building. He reported he went into the building through the main entrance and saw flames in the store along the north end of the building.
As firefighters arrived and began efforts to extinguish the flames, Smith said he interviewed a witness who said she saw Jalen May in the area of the paper towels & toilet paper “acting weird” before the fire started, according to the probable cause affidavit.
When Smith began questioning May, the teen asked to speak privately with the officer. Once away from everybody, May admitted to police that he started the fire.
According to the court document, May told authorities he got into an argument with his girlfriend and got angry and wanted to do something to break his probation so he would be sent back to jail.
May told police he went to the toilet paper aisle where he lit a roll of toilet paper and a roll of paper towels before going over to the pet aisle where he lit a dog bed on fire. He told police that he threw with disposable lighter down in the store’s front lawn not far from where he was talking with authorities. Police recovered the lighter as evidence.
Later after being booked into jail, May told officers that “he had gotten pissed off and does dumb stuff when he’s pissed off,” the court document read.
May was booked into Scott County Jail at 8:50 p.m. Magistrate Alison T. Frazier set May’s bond at $75,000 full cash.