Bellingham man allegedly sets two fires in a downtown ATM and on a picnic table
A Bellingham man was reportedly caught on surveillance video intentionally setting two downtown fires Friday morning and also reaching into a bank ATM to damage it.
Bellingham Police booked Mallik Jordan Goins, 20, into Whatcom County Jail Friday, Oct. 30, on suspicion of two counts of second-degree arson and one count of second-degree malicious mischief, and jail records show he is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail.
Officers were sent at 9:30 a.m. Friday to the Heritage Bank in the 200 block of York Street after the bank reported somebody had set fire to its ATM, Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham Herald in an email. Offers reportedly found the ATM damaged with a cover to the camera broken off, wires pulled out and paper receipt rolls that had been set on fire.
A nearby electrical box also had exposed wires and was damaged, which had caused lights in the parking lot to fail the night before, Murphy reported. Total damage to the electrical box was estimated to be $300, while the ATM had $2,000 worth of damage.
Police watched the video from the ATM and found that at approximately 12:42 a.m., a man, later identified as Goins, was seen reaching inside it, according to Murphy. It was then that the video stopped.
At approximately 8:20 a.m. Friday, officers were called to Faithlife in the 1300 block of Commercial Street, Murphy reported, after a witness reported hearing a small explosion and watching a man flee from the area where the witness then saw a fire on the picnic table.
When officers arrived, they learned a witness had followed the suspect, and they were able to arrest him and identified him as Goins, according to Murphy.
Surveillance video showed Goins lighting a small fire on the picnic table in front of Faith Life, Murphy reported, and that fire caused approximately $150 in damage.
Goins was seen wearing the same V-neck shirt, black belt and white Addidas logo baseball cap with black lettering and carrying a black puffy jacket with him at both fires, according to Murphy.
