DALTON, Ga. — The man accused of setting a deadly house fire in North Georgia, who was later killed in a crash following a chase with troopers, has been identified as a man from Indiana.
Firefighters were called out to a home along Grimes Street in Dalton early Saturday morning for a house that was on fire.
After the flames were put out, investigators found a woman’s body inside. Investigators later determined that the fire was intentionally set.
“After police were already at the scene, a woman called police to report that her brother had told her that he had killed his girlfriend at the Grimes Street residence,” Dalton police said in a news release.
Police realized the fire victim’s car was not there, so they put her license plate into a national database for stolen cars.
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Around 9:30 a.m., a trooper with the Kentucky State Police spotted the car and attempted to pull it over. The driver then sped away, starting a chase with the trooper just south of Lexington.
That chase ended with the suspect crashing his car, killing him. That driver has been identified as Ryan Ebler, 30, from Martinsville, Indiana.
“Your hope and your prayer is nobody gets hurt, and everybody’s OK. There’s some instances when law enforcement is faced with decisions that they have to make, and the severity of the crime they’re facing, and the risk to the public itself, and you weigh all of that together and proceed as cautiously as they can,” said Richmond Kentucky Police Chief Rodney Richardson, whose department was called in to assist with the crash.
So far, investigators have not released the name of the woman who was killed in the house fire.
Police said they had to wait a bit before being able to investigate the scene of the house fire because of toxic fumes.
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