{"id":28743,"date":"2024-03-12T18:55:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T00:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/atf-takes-over-fort-lewis-college-arson-investigation\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:38:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:38:48","slug":"atf-takes-over-fort-lewis-college-arson-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/atf-takes-over-fort-lewis-college-arson-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"ATF takes over Fort Lewis College arson investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Investigators
Investigators continue to look for evidence on March 12 at the suspected arson fire at Fort Lewis College that consumed a FLC police vehicle and damaging another one on Sunday night. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The investigation into Sunday\u2019s arson fires at Fort Lewis College now has the attention of federal officials.<\/p>\n

The college announced in a news release Monday night that the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives\u2019 Denver Field Division would take over investigating the case. The agency will work in partnership with the local agencies working on the case.<\/p>\n

The Fort Lewis College Police Department, Durango Police Department and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation are already helping out on the case.<\/p>\n

On Sunday morning, the press box at the Ray Dennison Memorial Field was allegedly set on fire at around 5:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

Durango Fire Protection District arrived on the scene in a timely manner to extinguish the flames.<\/p>\n

Just 18 hours later, Durango Fire responded to a call where a Fort Lewis College police vehicle was allegedly set on fire in the police department parking lot. The torched vehicle eventually exploded, and an additional police vehicle was damaged as a result. Foul play is suspected in both incidents.<\/p>\n

\"Fort
Fort Lewis College staff members board up the broken windows press box windows on Tuesday at Ray Dennison Memorial Field. On Sunday morning, the press box was allegedly set on fire around 5:30 a.m. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cFederal law enforcement has the expertise and resources to ensure those responsible for these acts are held accountable,\u201d said FLC Police Chief Brett Deming in the news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am unnerved, and I am angry that someone would do this to our amazing campus,\u201d FLC President Tom Stritikus said via social media. \u201cBut I do take solace in the fact that multiple law enforcement organizations are on scene right now, investigating. And even though his investigation might take time, I know they\u2019re doing everything they can to keep us safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

ATF spokeswoman Crystal McCoy could not comment on the investigation on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is imperative we do not compromise our collective efforts, integrity of this investigation or any potential future prosecutions especially so early in our investigation. Therefore, we cannot provide any additional details or updates on the investigation at this time,\u201d McCoy said in an email Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"A
A Fort Lewis College Police Department vehicle was set on fire and exploded late Sunday night. The vehicle was parked near the department's head quarters on the Fort Lewis campus. (Reuben M. Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben M. Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Law enforcement agencies have not specified whether they believe the perpetrator or perpetrators were FLC students or had any affiliation with the college.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information about the person or persons involved are asked to contact campus police at 888-ATF-TIPS or 970-385-2900, or share reports anonymously at Safe2Tell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

enforcement still searching for suspect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[741,168,350,132,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arson","tag-crime","tag-fire","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80516,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28743\/revisions\/80516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28743"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}