Minneapolis police arrested a man Saturday afternoon after he started a small blaze on his lawn and tried to set his house on fire.
Roughly 10 officers were at the scene on the 1000 block of Fourth Street Southeast at about 2:30 p.m. They took the man to Hennepin County Medical Center for crisis treatment.
âÄúHe was just kind of a crazy guy,âÄù said Minneapolis police Sgt. Mike Johnson, who also said the man has had encounters with officers in the past.
University graduate student Marissa Collard, who was at the house next door at the time of the incident, said the man poured gasoline on the porch. He then lit a piece of paper on fire and threw it down onto the soaked concrete, but nothing happened.
A faint smell of gasoline lingered on the porch after police left the scene, and a charred piece of paper sat on the lawn.
Collard said the man recently moved into the house, a rental property. The property management company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Neeraj Rajasekar, a third-year University student who called the cops, said he and his roommates had dealt with man for about a week prior to SaturdayâÄôs events. Rajasekar said the man was odd and off-putting.