A Washington state man has been charged with attempted murder after he tried to burn down his house with his elderly, disabled father inside. William Allan Lewis also allegedly held a sibling at gunpoint during the incident, but the sibling escaped as Franklin County deputies arrived on the scene, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office said.
It’s not clear who called police, but the deputies called in assistance from other agencies when they learned Lewis’s father was an apparent hostage. Hostage negotiators tried to contact Lewis by cell phone to negotiate his surrender, but he refused and instead set a fire in the home’s bathroom. Lewis then appeared at the home’s front door and surrendered. A team assembled and made entry, rescuing the elderly father.
No one was hurt, and firefighters extinguished the blaze, the Tri-City Herald reported. The sheriff’s office did not release Lewis’s name, but the Herald found him in jail records booked on Friday on charges of arson, attempted murder, unlawful imprisonment, and assault.