15-Year-Old Portland Boy Charged With Attempted Murder After Lighting Family House on Fire

PORTLAND, Ore. — A teenager was arrested by Portland Police officers from Central Precinct responding to reports of the 15-year-old in a mental health crisis, causing significant damage to his family’s home with a hammer in a house in the 1700 block of Northwest Potters Court.

The teenager then lit his family home on fire on Friday after police responded.

Portland Teenager Arrested After Lighting Fire In Family Home

When law enforcement officers arrived on the scene, they found that the family had evacuated and they were physically unhurt, but requested additional resources to try de-escalation techniques as no one was in immediate danger.

Enhanced Crisis Intervention Team (ECIT) officers and Project Respond attempted to communicate with the teenager, but could not convince him to surrender.

After several attempts over an hour and a half, and multiple attempts had failed to gain cooperation with the boy, officers and family discussed disengaging with a plan to follow up later.

As law enforcement and the family were leaving the area, the teenager was seen exiting the home towards a trail behind the house, but officers noticed that the garage of the home was on fire.

The officers on the scene requested additional resources- including Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R), and firefighters responded and quickly attacked the fire.

At the same time, to keep the boy from running further into the heavily treed area, officers stayed back, following from a distance, while coordinating apprehension strategies that included additional officers from the PPB Air Support Unit, and K9 unit.

Law enforcement followed the teenager, maintaining him in sight for over a mile in nearly 100-degree heat. After they were finally able to convince the teenager to surrender, he was taken into custody without force being used. PF&R kept the flames from spreading any further, including the neighbors’ homes, but the family’s home was heavily damaged.

The boy was first taken to the hospital for self-sustained injuries during the initial disturbance and later to the Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention facility. Detectives and Fire Investigators responding to the scene continued the investigation, and the 15-year-old was charged with Attempted Murder in the Second Degree (3 counts) and Arson in the First Degree.