Former UConn Student Charged With Arson at Storrs Apartments

A 19-year-old former UConn student has been arrested and charged with arson after a state police investigation into fires that caused nearly $25,000 in damage to a townhouse apartment and several cars near the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs in October.

Police said David Kuhn, 19, of Sherman, and another person set fire to cars outside apartments after getting into a fight at a party and being asked to leave.

Police responded to 5 Carriage House Road in Storrs around 5:20 a.m. on Oct. 11 to investigate reports of a motor vehicle fire and found three cars on fire. As they looked into the case, they determined the fire has been set with gasoline, police said.

Witnesses told police that Kuhn and another person tried to get into a party the night before, but were asked several times to leave.

Police investigating fires at Carriage House Apts

During the last request to leave, one of the men allegedly said, “It would be a shame if something happened to this place tonight,” according to the arrest warrant application.

Around 5:30 a.m., a witness who had been sleeping on a couch at one of the apartments woke up to the sound of someone screaming and saw that the inside of the apartment door was on fire, so they grabbed a pitcher and cup of water and put it out.

With the fire out, they went back to sleep until they heard the sound of popping from outside and saw a car was on fire, police said.

When police questioned Kuhn, he told police he thought he bumped into someone at the party and someone came at him, throwing punches, but that they left after someone broke up the fight and told them to leave, the arrest warrant application says.

Kuhn also denied that he or the other person he was with said anything to the effect of “it would be a shame if something happened to this place tonight.”

He did, however, say they decide to go back to Carriage House and “get some justice,” according to police, and came up with a plan to use gasoline and burn the front lawn of the apartment where the party was, according to the arrest warrant application.

When they got back to Carriage House Road, both men got out of the car, Kuhn said, and the other man poured the gasoline on the cars and grass, while Kuhn used a lighter to ignite the gas, according to police documents.

Police have charged Kuhn with first-degree arson, first-degree criminal mischief, tampering with a motor vehicle, first –degree reckless endangerment and conspiracy to commit arson.

Kuhn turned himself in to police at 7:40 a.m. on Tuesday and was held on a $500,000 bond.

Officials from UConn said Kuhn as enrolled at UConn from the Fall 2014 semester through the Fall 2015 semester, but is no longer enrolled.

State Police detectives expect to make at least one more arrest.
 

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