Atlanta

Sources: Woman who started deadly fire was wanted for previous arson

ATLANTA — A woman is in jail for a fire that killed a man and police say this isn't the first time they've arrested her for arson.

Benjetta Swinson hasn't stopped thinking of the day her neighbor known as "Mr. George" died after being trapped in his apartment as a fire quickly spread.

"He was a nice, sweet guy," Swinson told Channel 2's Nefertiti Jaquez. "We didn't see Mr. George come out and everybody was looking for him."

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Swinson said she was fuming when she learned that Kamara Wheeler was charged with arson after fire investigators said she set the fire that ultimately killed Mr. George.

"For it to happen like that and take a life. It's really still unbelievable," Swinson said.

The fire broke out at The Venetian Apartments in southwest Atlanta on March 15.

At the time, investigators were still trying to determine how the 64-year-old victim died. The man’s roommates all made it out of the fire.

Sources told Jaquez that Wheeler got into a fight with her boyfriend that day, who was one of the victim's roommates, before starting the fire.

Investigators said they found evidence that an accelerant was used and pulled surveillance video from the apartment complex that showed Wheeler running away from the unit as the flames started to swell.

But by the time firefighters arrived at the scene, Wheeler was gone.

Police never caught up to Wheeler until early Tuesday morning when they arrested her on an outstanding warrant.

Jaquez looked into Wheeler’s past and found out the outstanding warrant was for arson.

A police report from 2014 shows Wheeler, who also goes by the alias Keisha Smith, was arrested by Atlanta police for setting an abandoned home on fire.

The report said, “The suspect tried to make a run for it, but was quickly appended.”

When officers arrested her she allegedly told them: "Yeah, yeah it was me. I did it and I used a lighter to do it too. So what?"

Sources told Jaquez when questioned about the latest fire, Wheeler confessed to doing it.

"She deserves what she's getting. She needs to stay behind bars since she doesn't really care anyways," Swinson said.

Cox Media Group

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