Teen Arrested for Arson Believing Victims Stole His Phone

A testimony in a Denver District Court in the United States revealed yesterday, Friday, that five Senegalese immigrants died in a fire set intentionally by a teenager in their home in 2020 because he mistakenly believed someone in that house had stolen his mobile phone. This information was disclosed during a preliminary hearing for Kevin Boy and Gavin Seymour, who are charged with first-degree murder, arson, assault, and related offenses stemming from the fire ignited in August 2020. The Denver District Court found sufficient evidence in the case against the two to justify starting their trial and ordered that the young men be held without the possibility of bail, according to Reuters. Both were 16 years old when they were arrested in January 2021 and are currently being tried as adults, despite their lawyers' efforts to have the case moved to juvenile court. A third suspect, who was 15 at the time of his arrest, faces charges in juvenile court. The fire broke out in the early morning hours, resulting in the deaths of 29-year-old Jibril Diop, his 23-year-old wife Aisha Diop, and their 2-year-old daughter Khadija, as well as the wife's 25-year-old sister and her infant daughter. Three other family members escaped the fire by jumping from a second-floor window. Neil Baker, a Denver police investigator, testified on Friday that Boy confessed to the crime after his arrest, stating that he tracked the signal of the stolen mobile phone to that house in northeast Denver, where he and his partners poured gasoline inside and set it on fire. Baker testified, "He admitted to setting that house on fire," and noted that Boy realized after seeing news reports about the fire that the victims were not the ones who stole from him. Authorities stated that police identified the three suspects through mobile phone data and tracking the vehicle they fled in.