An early-morning arson attempt on the Midway RCMP Detachment Building was thwarted on Monday.
And it took only a matter of hours for the RCMP to arrest a 43-year-old Grand Forks male in connection with the incident.
It began at 12:10 a.m. on Monday morning when an officer, working inside the detachment, “heard a loud noise and a saw a bright flash where something appeared to have hit the office window,” said Kootenay Boundary Regional Detachment Staff Sergeant Dan Seibel in a press release.
The officer looked outside and saw a male suspect pick up a flaming bottle, which was believed to have initially been tossed at the building, and throw it at an unoccupied police vehicle.
Seibel said in the release that the bottle broke and spilled its contents igniting the surface of the vehicle on fire.
The officer in the building confronted the suspect, who ran to a nearby vehicle and fled the scene. The officer noted the vehicle’s licence plate, called for assistance and extinguished the fire.
After an initial search for the culprit, officers conducted a further investigation early Monday morning and arrested the person believed to be responsible.
In the release, Seibel credited the officer on duty for his quick reactions and expressed relief that the Molotov cocktail didn’t go through the window and cause greater damage to the building as well as potential injuries to the officer.