A man charged with setting fire to two University District buildings last month reportedly told detectives he was mad at his boss and contemplated fleeing to Mexico before turning himself in.
Prosecutors accuse the 24-year-old man of setting fire to the University Heights Center, where he worked as a janitor, early on the morning of July 22, before he headed south and set the Agua Verde Cafe and Paddle Club ablaze.
The sprinkler system at the University Heights Center extinguished the flames. Agua Verde sustained $60,000 in damage.
"The defendant easily could have torched two cherished, historic Seattle institutions to the ground," Senior Deputy Prosecutor William Doyle wrote to the court.