DENVER (KDVR) — The Denver Fire Department is hoping to identify the man caught on camera, setting fire to a vehicle parked outside Teaching the Autism Community Trades, a school that teaches trade and technical skills to students with autism.
It happened around 4:30 a.m. Monday.
“Who would do this?” asked Seamus Rollins, who worked on the car as part of his schooling. “Who wakes up in the morning and thinks they should do this, torch somebody’s school project?”
Rollins shares his fury with the people that teach at TACT
“I hope, whoever did it knows they hurt kids,” said Becky Mershon. “That’s who you are hurting.”
Mershon got a 5 a.m. wake up call from DFD on Monday, telling her their car was set on fire and another one parked beside it was damaged as well. Mershon later rolled back security footage from a parking lot camera, which caught the suspect in the act.
Video shows a man walking up to the car, placing something on fire inside on the passenger seat and then calmly walking away. It took seconds for the entire car to go up in flames.
“We are not doing anything wrong, we are not hurting anyone, we are just here to help kids and I was very taken back when I saw what happened,” said Mershon.
Both the damaged vehicles were donated to TACT for the students to repair and eventually be sold. That money was to go back to the nonprofit, leaving the school out several thousand dollars.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help purchase more vehicles for TACT students.
If you have any information about the arson, call DFD.