Investigators want to know if a Far North Side man who’s charged with setting three fires in Rogers Park last month is connected to a series of arson fires reported in Lakeview, Lincoln Park, and Roscoe Village since October.
Prosecutors said surveillance cameras captured images of 34-year-old Christopher Slattery setting fires at Salvation Army donation boxes on the 2100 block of West Devon three times last month: at 4:28 a.m. on Dec. 6; at 4:02 a.m. on Dec. 9; and at 4:24 a.m. on Dec. 23.
Authorities charged him with three felony counts of arson in connection with the Rogers Park cases. Judge David Navarro set bail at $2,000 and ordered Slattery to go on electronic monitoring. He’s due back in court on Feb. 7.
A fugitive apprehension team that caught up with Slattery on Jan. 8th in Wicker Park wrote in arrest paperwork that Slattery “matched a description of a subject who was setting fires in the 24th and 19th districts.”
The Rogers Park fires took place in the 24th police district. But the 19th District, which patrols Lakeview, Uptown, North Center, and much of Lincoln Park has experienced a series of more than a dozen intentionally set alley fires over the past three months.
One set of five intentionally set fires was reported in the district on the night of Jan. 4-5, just three days before police arrested Slattery. But no arson incidents have been reported since.
So far, though, prosecutors have not charged anyone with the 19th District blazes, including Slattery.