Teen, 14, Accused of Setting Fire to Home, While Family of 4 Was Sleeping Inside, in Attempt to Kill His Teenage Friend By Erin Clack

A Florida teenager is accused of setting fire to a house while a family of four was asleep inside — and police say the 14-year-old admitted that he was attempting to kill his friend.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) and the Lehigh Acres Fire Department responded to a report of a residential fire on the 300 Block of Paisley Avenue in Lehigh Acres at around 6 a.m. local time on Saturday, Jan. 3, according to a Facebook post shared by the LCSO on Monday, Jan. 5.

When they arrived at the scene, deputies found an open 5-gallon propane tank near the front door of the home, along with a “homemade Molotov cocktail,” per the post. “Four occupants inside the home were able to escape through a window and were not injured,” the LCSO said.

During a subsequent investigation, multiple witnesses told authorities that the suspect, a 14-year-old boy, was parked down the street and “briefly made contact with the victims, asking what had happened before leaving the area.” The boy was arrested at his home, where he allegedly “admitted to transporting the propane tank, using a gas-filled bottle to ignite the fire, and attempting to kill an occupant” inside the Paisley Avenue home, the LCSO said.

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He was charged with four counts of attempted felony murder, arson, occupied burglary, making a destructive device, and possession or use of a weapon, per the LCSO. He has been released to the Department of Juvenile Justice for secure detention.

The LCSO’s Facebook post includes body-cam footage of deputies and firefighters responding to the scene of the fire, including a look at the propane tank and the home’s burned front door.

PEOPLE reached out to the LCSO for more information.

Namiry Enrique Alvarez, who was in the Paisley Avenue home with three family members at the time of the fire, described the incident to local outlet 13 News as “traumatic.”

“Even now, two days later, I still can’t sleep, and neither can they because you relive everything that happened, and you’re afraid it’s going to happen again, which keeps you from sleeping,” she said through a translator.

Alvarez shared that she and her family members had to escape the burning home through a window as the fire blocked the front door. None of the four were injured in the incident, she added.

According to the outlet, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said the 14-year-old suspect allegedly told investigators that he started the fire in an attempt to kill his teenage friend, Alvarez’s son.

“This is a juvenile that’s committing a tremendous, horrifying act — trying to kill four people in a residence. It’s sad to me that things got this way, but I’m very thankful that the result is nobody’s hurt, and our suspect is off the streets and charged,” Marceno said.