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Fresno Police Chief's Car Set on Fire

The Fresno (Calif.) police chief's car was set on fire in the police headquarters parking lot on Sunday. The fire is said to have been started by something being thrown under it.

July 21, 2014
Fresno Police Chief's Car Set on Fire

Photo: Fresno PD via Facebook

1 min to read


Shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, someone walked into the Fresno (Calif.) police parking lot and set a patrol car on fire. The car is driven by Chief Jerry Dyer during the week.

"We've had vandalism in police parking lots and we've had individuals in our parking lots writing down license plate numbers, but I don't remember anyone setting anything on fire at headquarters," Dyer told the Fresno Bee. "This is unique."

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Officers in the downtown office put the fire out within minutes. The fire department also responded.

It is not known what caused the fire, but "something was thrown under the unit," said fire spokesman Kris Townsend.

The fire department was battling a handful of small trash and car fires that occurred within 10 minutes of each other in a six-block area of downtown Fresno on Sunday. Neither Dyer or the fire department knows if the patrol car incident is connected to any of those fires.

Police detectives are reviewing video surveillance from the parking lot and other locations to see what happened and if they can identify a suspect. 

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