DST House Fire @ U of Alabama

[CrimsonTide4]

Thanks Steeltrap for the heads up:

Tuscaloosa News
August 22, 2002

Deliberate fire set after shots fired at sorority picnic

By Steve Reeves
Staff Writer

TUSCALOOSA | Police are investigation a fire they say was
deliberately set at a University of Alabama sorority house this
morning just hours after shots were fired at a campus picnic attended by members of the sorority.

No one was injured in either incident. Police classified the blaze as
arson, meaning it was deliberately set. The first floor of the Delta
Sigma Theta sorority house, a black sorority, was visibly damaged.
Eight women were in the house at the time of the fire but they all
escaped without injury.

Josh Payne, a member of nearby Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, said he was awakened at 4:49 a.m. Thursday by what "sounded like two gunshots." The sound apparently was caused by windows breaking during the fire.

Payne looked out the window of his fraternity house and saw flames coming out of the bottom floor windows of the Delta Sigma Theta house.

Payne, who reported the fire to authorities, said he also saw "five
or six college-age guys" standing outside the sorority house while it burned. The men disappeared before police arrived, he said.

The fire came just hours after a shooting incident that happened
after a joint picnic between Delta Sigma Theta sorority and Omega Psi Phi fraternity at the UA amphitheater. A UA press release said twoshots were fired into the air at 10:32 p.m., while the students were cleaning up after the picnic.

University police arrested two people, Timos Deron Fears, and Rodney Demille Moore, neither age known, in connection with the shooting and charged them with reckless endangerment. It is not known if the two are students, but police think they may be.

The Tuscaloosa Fire Department, which is investigating the fire,
referred calls seeking information to UA media relations. The UA
police department also referred calls to UA media relations.

Copyright © 2002 The Tuscaloosa News