Ind. man charged with arson in fake hate crime

[May 05, 2009]  PORTAGE, Ind. (AP) -- Police arrested a northwestern Indiana man on charges that he set a fire at his mother's home and tried to make look like a hate crime by spray-painting a racial slur on the garage door.

Police said the 21-year-old suspect argued with his mother late Thursday, then after she went to sleep painted the slur and used gasoline to set fire to her bedroom door just after midnight Friday.

His mother escaped by climbing out a bedroom window, but suffered serious burns to one of her feet. Police Sgt. Keith Hughes said the man told officers that the fire was meant to scare his mother.

The man was being held Saturday in jail on preliminary felony arson charges.

[Associated Press]

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