Armed Vancouver Homeowner Detains Man Deputies Now Say Torched a Furniture Warehouse and a Vintage Rail Car

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VANCOUVER, WA — A Vancouver homeowner armed with a gun held a suspected bike thief on the ground until Clark County deputies arrived last Friday, and that man has since been charged with first-degree arson for a fire that spread from a dumpster into a furniture warehouse two hours earlier.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office laid out the timeline in a release Thursday, as reported by KGW. Deputies first responded Friday, Aug. 28, after a 911 caller reported a man starting a brush fire near the 4000 block of Northeast 119th Avenue, close to the Interstate 205 overpass. Crews from Clark County Fire District 6 put it out before it burned more than 200 square feet. No other damage was reported.

Deputies found Josue Paredes Merino, 31, in a neighborhood off Brookview Drive after a bicycle was allegedly stolen from a home there. Investigators told KGW the homeowner who confronted him had recognized him from security video a neighbor shared after the theft. The homeowner drew a gun. Merino went to the ground. Video aired by KGW shows him lying with his arms stretched straight out to his sides while the homeowner kept a gun on him. He stayed there until deputies arrived and took him into custody.

That is the extent of what the sheriff’s office and KGW have described. Neither account says what Merino did when he was confronted or whether investigators have reviewed the homeowner’s decision to draw. What the arrest did establish is who deputies had in handcuffs, and what he is now accused of doing in the hours before.

Two hours before the brush fire call, Clark County Fire District 5 had responded to a fire along Northeast St. Johns Road near Northeast 40th Avenue. It started in a dumpster, spread to the Furniture World Southwest warehouse, and reached a vintage train car and a mobile wrecking crane parked on the tracks behind the building. The fire went to two alarms. The Clark County Fire Marshal’s Office ruled it intentionally set and found two separate areas of origin.

Investigators also pulled surveillance video, which the sheriff’s office released. It shows a man with most of his face covered ride up to the dumpster on a bicycle, climb in, climb back out, and ride off. Less than 10 minutes later, flames flicker into frame from inside the dumpster. Investigators say the man matches Merino’s description.

Employees inside the Furniture World warehouse evacuated when the fire alarm went off. Clark County Sheriff’s Detective Tanya Johnson told KGW that an arson with people inside a building is “very traumatic.” Between the fire and the sprinkler system, an assistant manager said nearly 100 pieces of furniture were damaged. The business puts its losses above $640,000. Firefighters needed about 40 minutes to bring the fire under control.

The rail car belonged to the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad Association, a nonprofit that runs weekend tourist trains on a stretch of line near Yacolt and carries about 8,000 riders a year. The group had owned the car for 13 years and planned to restore it. They now fear the fire damage is too severe for that.

Johnson said the case came together quickly once detectives lined up the video from the different locations. “It was easy to establish and follow the pattern and the movement,” she said.

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KGW also spoke with a woman identified only as Sulma, who said Merino is her ex and the father of her daughter. She and her husband said he does not live at their home and is not welcome there. “We are helping him, but he does not listen,” she said. “He has to learn the hard way.”

Merino was initially charged with second-degree theft and reckless burning. On Thursday, sheriff’s detectives added a charge of first-degree arson for the warehouse fire. He is also a person of interest in a third fire that started around the same time between the two other locations, which remains under investigation. He is being held at the Clark County Jail and was due back in court Friday on the new charges. Investigators are asking anyone with video of him in the area that morning to contact the sheriff’s office. The charges are accusations, and he is presumed innocent unless convicted.