Pasco church damaged by arson. Tri-Cities man jailed after string of fires, break-ins
A Tri-Cities man is in jail accused of a string of early morning arson fires that ended with the torching of a Pasco church.
Pasco police were called just after 5 a.m. Thursday to the old Bank of America building on Lewis Street after a caller said they saw a man break the glass doors and enter the building, according to a police post on social media.
When officers arrived they did not find the man, but found evidence that he had tried to set the building on fire.
They also received a second call about a man breaking a window at the Celebration One Salon, 327 W. Clark St. The suspect ran away when confronted by the caller, and police did not find him in the area.
A third call came in soon after from Atomic Foods, 1212 N. 4th Ave., where a window had been smashed and a cash register broken into.
Then, a fourth caller reported that the Apostolic Lutheran Church at 1207 W. Court St. in Pasco was on fire.
Witnesses told officers they saw a man break out a window and then run west down Court Street after the church was burning.
As Pasco Fire Department worked to put out the blaze, officers searched the area and found a man matching the suspect’s description near the intersection of West Agate Street and North 16th Avenue.
After a short foot chase, police took Seth James Klindworth, 36, into custody. The news release also mentioned “a ride of lightning,” which Pasco Sgt. Tom Groom told the Herald was a reference to police using a taser to shock him during the arrest.
Klindworth was booked into the Franklin County jail just after 10 a.m.
The church had extensive damage but more details on the damage were not immediately available.
Court records show Klindworth has an extensive criminal history and was put on probation in March as part of a plea deal on three charges of assaulting a police officer and one count of assaulting a healthcare worker in Benton County in September 2022.
His previous convictions include a 2017 vehicular assault in Benton County, 2015 bomb threat in Spokane County, a 2013 assault with a deadly weapon in Franklin County and a 2013 attempt to elude police in Franklin County.
Kennewick storage unit fire
Kennewick fire crews also battled a blaze off Interstate 82 near Highway 395 just after 10 p.m. on Wednesday night, which briefly shut down both lanes of traffic because of the smoke.
The fire is believed to have started after a semi truck and trailer with mechanical problems threw sparks into the grass, according to a post from Kennewick police.
The fire spread to a nearby storage unit and damaged motorhomes in the storage center parking lot.
This story was originally published July 27, 2023 at 11:45 AM.
