Illinois man charged with arson after allegedly setting home ablaze on Thanksgiving
An Illinois man was arrested after he allegedly intentionally set his family's home on fire following a heated argument on Thanksgiving according to police Erik J Crump was charged with aggravated arson and residential arson in connection with the circumstance The Lake County Sheriff s Office declared deputies were called around p m Thursday to a home in the block of North Lone Oak Road in Beach Park for a disclosed argument Family members narrated deputies they were frustrated because Crump had been antagonizing others in the home though officers disclosed no crime had occurred WHO IS JONATHAN RINDERKNECHT PALISADES FIRE SUSPECT ACCUSED OF SPARKING DEADLY BLAZE Deputies deescalated the situation and Crump agreed to separate from the family for the rest of the evening About an hour later deputies returned to the home for reports of a fire When firefighters arrived they saw a man matching Crump s description standing near the roadway armed with a knife before he fled Deputies set up a perimeter and a sheriff s K tracked his scent to a dead-end indicating he may have left in a bus Crump was later located at a storage facility in the block of North Lewis Avenue and taken into custody without occurrence Detectives determined that Crump had been notified after the earlier argument that he would be kicked out of the home He allegedly returned used an accelerant to ignite his bedroom and fled as the fire spread causing major damage The family then noticed smoke filling the home and without delay evacuated It s nothing short of a blessing that nobody was injured or killed in this senseless act Sheriff John D Idleburg revealed in a report While families across Lake County were sitting down for Thanksgiving our dispatchers were answering the call and our deputies were out responding to them PALISADES FIRE SUSPECT HIT WITH NEW CHARGES IN GRAND JURY INDICTMENT Our club along with our fire organization partners responded within minutes secured the area helped ensure the fire was extinguished and took this individual into custody before anyone else was put at pitfall he continued I am incredibly proud of their professionalism and their commitment to keeping our area safe every hour of every day The Lake County State s Attorney s Office after reviewing the circumstances of the occurrence approved the aggravated arson and residential arson charges