CITY OFFERS REWARD FOR ARSON ATTACKER

The City of Charleston is offering a $2,500 reward for information that could lead to the arrest of the unidentified man who set fire to a woman while she slept on a porch on Sunday morning.  Police have released photographs of the man from nearby surveillance video and from a local homeless shelter he walked into Friday evening.

“This attack was a horrific crime, and we are doing everything we can to get this man off the streets,” said Charleston Mayor Danny Jones in announcing the reward.  “The Charleston Police Department is working closely with the Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney’s office on this case, and we hope anyone with information about this case will contact the Police Department:  (304) 348-8111.”

The reward was announced during a news conference this afternoon with Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Chuck Miller, Charleston Police Chief Brent Webster and Chief of Detectives Steve Cooper.

Surveillance video shows the man walking up to a porch of an abandoned house on Randolph Street, pouring a gasoline or some accelerant on a woman sleeping there and then lighting her and the porch on fire.  Rachele Jarrett, 44, is trying to recover from the burns she received in the attack in the Cabell Huntington Hospital Burn Unit this afternoon.