MELBOURNE, Fla. – A state park was set on fire, deputies say, by an arsonist dressed like a pirate, armed with a tiki torch and samurai sword.
It happened on April 22 on the Treasure Coast, but your Melbourne Community Correspondent James Sparvero found out the suspect is local, and that’s making some families very concerned.
“I think it’s crazy,” Jackie Woodson said. “How could we have an idiot in our neighborhood like this?”
Last week, the Martin County Sheriff’s office said Morgan Lentz, 22, poured gasoline on a motorcycle outside of a bar.
Then, as witness Kylie Micciche recorded, the sheriff’s office said Lentz started setting the Savannas Preserve State Park on fire.
Body-camera video showed Lentz’s arrest.
[Watch the full body-camera footage below]
At Harbor City Elementary in Melbourne, Sparvero told parent Francis Piccolella how close Lentz lives to his daughters’ school.
“That’s pretty dangerous,” the parent said. “I don’t want fires near my daughters and samurai swords and all that stuff.”
Woodson said she hopes Lentz stays in jail.
“I hope they don’t let him out, or at least if they do, they get him some kind of help,” she said.
Lentz’s bond in the Martin County jail is $22,000.