Greenwood police arrested a Central Nine Career Center student they say set fire to a house he was helping build as part of a class.
Joshua Small, 18, of Indianapolis, is charged with arson, a Level 4 felony. If convicted, he faces up to 12 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Smallwood was a student at the Greenwood vocational school where, as part of a Construction Traits class, he and other students had almost completed work on a house at 1173 Station Drive, Greenwood, according to a Greenwood Police Department report. The house had been under construction for about 3 1/2 years, the report said.
Around midnight Nov. 30, Smallwood started the fire on the porch of the house, which burned much of the entryway and caused nearly $10,000 worth of damage, according to the police report. He also destroyed cameras at the house, police said.
Arson investigators with the Greenwood Fire Department said the fire was started using a gasoline bomb or some sort of Molotov cocktail, according to the report.
A school resource officer called Greenwood police when Smallwood came to school Dec. 3 with burns on his forehead. Greenwood police interviewed Smallwood Dec. 5 at the school. He said, "Uh. I would just like to say … I would like to admit right here, right now, yes, I did it," when asked about the fire, the report said.
He added, "I go back to that day and I wasn’t thinking straight and was just angry."
Smallwood told police he went to the house around 11:30 p.m. Nov. 29, went to the front door and took the camera down, poured gasoline on the doorstep, lit it on fire and left, according to the report.
When asked why he started the fire, he told police he is normally reserved and quiet. "I just felt like I wanted to free myself a little, like actually do something," he told police.
Smallwood said he set fire to that house because he knew nobody lived there and didn’t want to hurt anybody, the report said.
Police collected evidence at Smallwood’s house including the boots and pants he was wearing the night of the fire. Investigators also found his glasses at the scene of the fire, according to the report.
Police arrested Smallwood on a warrant Monday. He was released from the Johnson County jail on $1,200 bond.
