Two men died in an early morning fire that roared through a Mandeville
condominium Thursday. One of the condominium's residents, whom police say
is an illegal immigrant, was later arrested and booked in the blaze.
The fire victims were identified only as Asian males, 40 and 24. Police
withheld the victims' names until relatives could be notified. The
victims, the suspect and the six other residents of the condominium all
worked at a nearby Chinese restaurant.
After 3 ½ hours of questioning by police, with the help of an
interpreter, police said, Alejandro Crozco-Benitez, 27, of Palmar Chico,
Mexico, admitted he set the fire. Crozco-Benitez said he set the fire
because he was upset that a recent paycheck from the restaurant, Sesame
Inn, was docked, Mandeville Police Chief Tom Buell said.
Crozco-Benitez was booked with two counts of first-degree murder and
aggravated arson. Buell said the suspect has been deported from the United
States twice before. He became a suspect after the fellow residents said
he was up before the 3 a.m. fire.
Later, he fled the condominium and police searched for him in the woods
along West Causeway Approach. He ran into woods across from the entrance
to Mandeville High School after a confrontation with construction workers.
The workmen called police to complain that the man threatened to hit them
with a chunk of asphalt near the 1200 Place shopping center.
He was captured about 3 p.m. in the back yard of a home in
Fontainebleau subdivision.
Child locates man
John Colgan, 4, was credited with leading police to the suspect. His
mother, Jenny Colgan, said he came to her at about 3 p.m. after looking
out a window into their side yard and spotting a man in the grass.
"I told him not to rattle the window or anything and I dialed 911. The
police were nearby and got here in seconds," she said. She and others
living along Rue Chinon in Fontainebleau were told by police three hours
earlier not to leave their homes and not to let children out to play
because of the manhunt.
"We are very proud of John. He did the right thing and we all felt good
afterward because the children could go outside to play again," Colgan
said.
A spokeswoman for the St. Tammany Parish coroner's office said
autopsies will be conducted on the two fire victims Friday.
Chief Merrick Tassin of Fire Protection District 4 said the two deaths
mark the first fire fatalities in the Mandeville area in at least five
years.
A resident of the Mariners Village condominiums reported the fire at
No. 8 Caribbean Court about 3 a.m. It took firefighters more than an hour
to get the stubborn blaze under control.
"It was fully engulfed in fire when we arrived, with flames shooting
out of the roof," Tassin said. "It was a fierce fire and it spread
rapidly."
By sunrise, the unit was gutted. Only a blackened shell remained.
Although the fire breached a fire wall separating it from the condo
next door, damage to that other unit -- which is unoccupied and has a "for
sale" sign in front -- was minor, Tassin said.
Restaurant aids probe
The men living in the burned-out three-bedroom condo worked at the
Sesame Inn on the west service road alongside North Causeway Boulevard.
Buell said restaurant owners Steve Liu and Yu Lein Gu Chung are
cooperating with police. Liu told investigators that Crozco-Benitez
recently had been hired to work at Sesame Inn through a Houston employment
service, the police chief said.
Buell said Liu told officers that documentation involving all the
residents of the condo, which is owned by the restaurant, and restaurant
records were on the unit's second floor and probably destroyed in the
fire. Tassin said his firefighters found some passports in the rubble.
Buell said his office is trying to determine whether Liu and Chung knew
that Crozco-Benitez was an illegal immigrant when he was hired May 22.
Two of those who escaped apparently had minor injures, and one was
treated at Lakeview Regional Medical Center for an ankle sprain but was
not admitted, and the other did not seek treatment.. Three firefighters
received minor injuries battling the blaze and were treated at the scene,
Tassin said.
Tassin said investigators with the state fire marshal's office and the
federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were helping
District 4 investigators examine the ruins. Buell said ATF agents were
contacted because they have experience in fire homicide investigations. He
said no weapons were found.
Tassin said the fire started on the first floor in a combination
kitchen and living room and quickly spread upward.
He said one victim was found on the second floor and the other on the
third floor. Search dogs were bought to the fire scene because
authorities thought there might be a third victim, Tassin said.
