Rural home in ashes after standoff / LJWorld.com

Archive for Sunday, November 11, 2007

Law enforcement officials suspect property owner burned down buildings

November 11, 2007

Standoff ends in fires

Fires devastated a one-story home east of Pleasant Grove Hill, leaving the property littered in ash. Enlarge video

Only charred remains lie where a home once stood at 688 East 1375 Road after the property caught fire during a Friday night standoff. Firefighters battled the blaze until Saturday morning.

Standoff ends with arrest, fires (11-09-07)

A rural Douglas County home has been reduced to ash, the result of Friday's 10-hour standoff between the man who owned the property and local law enforcement.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office took the man into custody late Friday and sent him to Lawrence Memorial Hospital for an assessment, said Lt. Kari Wempe, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office. A nursing supervisor at LMH has confirmed the man's identity as Darrel Maley and said he was transported to a Kansas City hospital.

Maley, according to Douglas County records, owns the property south of Lawrence that was surrounded much of Friday by law enforcement agencies. He was taken into custody about 11 p.m., as fire began to consume two buildings on the land.

Officials believe Maley doused the house and adjacent barn with gasoline and diesel fuel, then set the buildings ablaze. What was left of the buildings was still smoldering at 9 a.m. Saturday, as Willow Springs firefighters arrived on the scene to extinguish remaining hot spots. Wempe said the reason for the standoff and subsequent fires remained under investigation.

"We believe he started the fire in the garage," said Willow Springs Fire Chief Lyle Bowlin.

Bowlin said his crew fought the fire until 5:30 a.m. Saturday.

"We thought we were going to get a save on the house," he said. "It's just an unfortunate situation the way this transpired."

Flames devastated the one-story home, leaving the property littered in ash. Skeletal frames of several vehicles sat blackened in what was once the garage, and small patches of fire remained in some areas of the house and aluminum barn.

Fire departments from Willow Springs, Eudora, Palmyra, Wakarusa, Lemcompton, as well as Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical, responded to the fire.

The standoff began about 1 p.m. Friday when authorities received a call from someone concerned about Maley's welfare. Officers were dispatched to the property at 688 East 1375 Road. Wempe said Maley threatened officers with a shotgun, which was eventually dismantled.

"He was a danger to himself and others because he did have weapons," Wempe said. "However, we did our best to keep everyone safe.

"During the course of the events, we asked for assistance from Kansas Highway Patrol and the Lawrence Police Department, and we were able to secure the area around the residence, and as we continued to talk to the individual around 11 o'clock that evening, we were about to take him into custody, and at the same time a fire was discovered in the barn."

Maley was apprehended with the help of Lawrence police officers, then taken to LMH for evaluation.

"I do not believe he went willingly," Wempe said, but she could give no further details.

Boxes of clothes, toiletries and other personal effects sat behind the ruins of the house, and several pieces of furniture, including a dresser atop a green dolly, sat next to the smoking rubble of the barn, suggesting they had been removed before the blaze began.

In the front yard, nine crushed Coors Light beer cans lay in front of a folding chair emblazoned with the University of Missouri logo. A long-reach lighter lay in the grass.

Whitney Rutledge, who has lived across the street with her fiance for about a year and a half, said Maley and his family were always neighborly.

"We waved at them when they mowed the lawn," she said. "They were very nice."

Discussion

LJWorld.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post.
Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.

11 November 2007
at 7:58 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

overplayedhistory (Anonymous) says…

Mr. Py take another wack at it. Mr. shut me up. Find out what was said between, If anything, a knock on the door and officers being threatened with a shot gun.
Until you have experienced a situation where say they are looking for some one, and you fit the description, you will not understand the inquisitive nature of my initial reaction.
The neighbor did not say thank god that crazy man is off the street did they.
I am not saying the cops did not handle this the right way. It is still important to question.
I bet Wempe wanted to know exactly what was said between the call and the threat, or know if anything was said at all.
Please forgive my incessant posting my perceptions about the police were recently altered.
11 November 2007
at 8:10 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Empty Coors cans?

There's you answer!

Drinking Colorado Kool-Aid will drive you crazy!

Not to mention the ill effects of that Missouri chair!

Ban Coors!

Ban Missouri chairs!
11 November 2007
at 9:27 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Ragingbear (Anonymous) says…

Oh yeah. Suuuure. It was the homeowner that burned it down. That area that indicates the fire started where a tear gas cannister was is merely a coincidence.

They have used this excuse too often across the nation to cover up shoddy police work. It started with places before Waco, and it continues after.
11 November 2007
at 11:06 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

LA_Ex (Anonymous) says…

I must have missed the part about a CS canister being used. The guy was intent on burning his house down, going so far as to douse it in either gasoline or diesel fuel. That was known from the beginning. Since they knew this, I really doubt that they would have shot a tear gas canister into the house because of the high fire risk. Why do you people automatically assume the deputies were responsible for the fire? Sounds like the Sheriff's office did as much as they could in trying to handle this situation.
11 November 2007
at 12:25 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

doc1 (Anonymous) says…

LA_EX. Conspiracy Theories run high in this town. You gotta remember that one quarter of humans are somewhat compelled by conspiracy theories and radical unbiased though process.
11 November 2007
at 12:44 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

It was that non-union scab beer that did it, I tell you!
11 November 2007
at 1:06 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

jrlii (Anonymous) says…

Since when is a health & welfare call a just cause to start a siege, never mind burn the guy's house down?

It seems the locals have been hanging out with the Jack Booted Thugs that became famous in Waco.

11 November 2007
at 1:57 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

truthvfiction1212 (Anonymous) says…

Ah, Lawrence, home of hippies and conspiracy theories. If any of you were there “overplayed” “raging” “jrlii” then feel free to express your truly dizzying insight into the situation, but if you were not there, then quit with the rampant speculations. Does that really help anything? If you were even positing logical arguments, I would not be as dismayed. The idea that you add facts that are not there to arrive at your conspiracy theories makes you worse than any government agency you are trying to attack…
11 November 2007
at 3:44 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Pywacket (Anonymous) says…

Maybe you need to up your meds, overplayed.. Sounds like you have, indeed, had your share of run-ins with the authorities. Go ahead and post all you want—you just make yourself sound worse every time. What point do you think you made earlier that has now been validated? Answer: none. You, ragingnutjob, and jrlii need to start a knitting/support circle so you can get all those bad feelings out in the open while working on something calming. A nice doily, maybe, or a Christmas-themed tissue-box cover.

The cops handled this one extremely well. If they hadn't surrounded the place and eventually taken this guy into custody, there is no way of knowing where the situation would've gone. He might have sobered up (only to head to the brink another time)… he might still have burned the place down… he might have shot himself and only himself… or he might have taken a mind to drive to some particular spot (a former place of employment, a relative's home, a business he thought had ripped him off in the past…) and start shooting everyone in sight. There is no way of knowing, because even their closest loved ones cannot fathom what someone might do when they are not in their right mind.

Pick up a paper. That kind of s*** happens. When someone is that desperate, they often take others with them before putting the gun to their own heads. And what do the neighbors invariably say? Bingo: “He was so nice! We never in a million years would have expected him to do this!!” What would everybody have said about the cops if they had not “held siege” and the guy had gone on a shooting spree? Of course: it would've been the cops' fault for NOT taking action.

There is hope for this man, now. Something there might not have been had the authorities not done their job. Now he has a chance to heal and once again be the friend, neighbor, and family man loved by many.

Don't be a clueless sap. When someone is this unstable, it has nothing to do with what a nice person he is in “real life.” People can totally lose it—and then there is no telling what they might do. The police are absolutely, 100% justified in handling such a person as a ticking time bomb, because they just might BE one. There is nothing you can say (about your personal failure to alert authorities to someone's possible meltdown—you got LUCKY) that would convince me otherwise. But blast away if it makes you feel better—or defuses your own imminent breakdown.
11 November 2007
at 4:38 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Ragingbear (Anonymous) says…

I'm just saying that if the police did something to cause it to catch on fire, then own up to it. But it seems that fires get started quite often in these situations and the police claim it was those inside that started it.
11 November 2007
at 4:50 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Ragingursus wrote:

” But it seems that fires get started quite often in these situations and the police claim it was those inside that started it.”

Marion writes:

Other than Waco, will you be so kind as to provide us with citations which support your claim?
11 November 2007
at 5:26 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

camper (Anonymous) says…

I'm gonna have to say the police handled this one well.
11 November 2007
at 6:16 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

wagenseil (Anonymous) says…

If the guy had already doused the place with gasoline, seems to me anything the police did to contribute was at best incidental. This incident ended with only property destroyed and no lives lost: property can be replaced.

Place is a mile from my house, and I was driving back from KCI at 1 a.m. Saturday morning to the sight of a burning house on the horizon, and the exact location unclear. It was a tad unnerving…
11 November 2007
at 6:49 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

gossipgirl (Anonymous) says…

I really do not appreciate the rude comments toward the Maley family! I have been very close friends with their children for many years. What happened is very sad and hard for those close to the family to handle. Please keep your rudeness to a minumum. I could not imagine having to be the child who was going between my father and the police in a situation like this. My thoughts and prayers are with his youngest son right now because I know he is really shook up from this whole ordeal. I just pray that none of you ever have to go thru a situation like this. At one time that was a very beautiful home and barn, I just hope that Mr. Maley does get well and this can all pass. To the Maley family you are all in my prayers right now!!!
11 November 2007
at 7:16 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

artichokeheart (Anonymous) says…

It really is a sad situation. I watched the video of the smoldering foundation ;nothing left at all.

11 November 2007
at 8:55 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Ragingursus:

Where are your citations?

Enquiring minds want to know!
12 November 2007
at 12:09 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

igby (Anonymous) says…

I think that Raggy stepped in the Bear Poop on this one,lol.
12 November 2007
at 8:48 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

costello (Anonymous) says…

Is anything being done to help this family financially?
12 November 2007
at 8:58 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

amber3516 (Anonymous) says…

The Red Cross gave the family a gift card to go shopping with and they are staying with friends of the family. The mother and oldest son have nothing left. The youngest has some things since he goes to school in Manhattan. I'm not sure where you can donate, but I can get some information.
12 November 2007
at 9:11 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

costello (Anonymous) says…

“I'm not sure where you can donate, but I can get some information.”

Please do find out. I can't give a lot, but I'd like to send a few dollars to help them out.
12 November 2007
at 12:34 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

amber3516 (Anonymous) says…

There is one place right now that is accepting donations. Super Cuts by Target is taking donations in the Maley name. A jar will be set out today or tomorrow. If you would like to donate before the jar is set out, you can give your donations to Pam Robertson at Super Cuts.

Also, there is a plan to open a donation fund in the family's name at a bank in Baldwin. However, since the banks are closed today, no further action can be taken until tomorrow. I will keep information posted.
12 November 2007
at 1:20 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

costello (Anonymous) says…

Thanks, Amber. I would prefer to send a check to the bank. Please let us know tomorrow exactly where to send a donation.
12 November 2007
at 1:33 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

rooster (Anonymous) says…

As their neighbor and all I can say is that this is very tragic and I pray that they can all get past this and to all the people considering donate please do what you can.

12 November 2007
at 4:16 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Crispian (Crispian Paul) says…

Seriously, he did set the house on fire….Whitney Rutledge quoted above is my friend and lives across the street.
12 November 2007
at 4:30 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

bearded_gnome (Anonymous) says…

wow, rampant speculation to form insane paranoid fantasies? naw..never happen on here.

***
ragingbear just hasn't been the same since the authorities shut down the chinese massage parlors in johnson county. he's been much worse since then.
12 November 2007
at 4:36 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

btowngirl (Anonymous) says…

Kansas State Bank is Baldwin is opening a donation fund for the Maley family.
12 November 2007
at 5:14 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

gossipgirl (Anonymous) says…

I just wanted to say thank you to those who are wishing to donate to the Maley family. I too am a friend of their youngest son and I just wanted to say thank you every little bit helps. It shows alot about the people who read about this tragedy to come and help the family it means alot to me as a friend to see other people wanting to help them out. Thank you!!!
13 November 2007
at 9:28 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

costello (Anonymous) says…

I don't know the Maley family, but I was thinking about them last night and wondering how a family recovers from something like this. I'm not asking for answers to these questions - it's none of my business - but I was thinking: What do you do when your home is destroyed and there's no insurance to rebuild? What if there's a mortgage, how do you pay that off? Do you sell the land to cover the note? What if the Maleys live from farming?

All this the family has to cope with while trying to deal with a possible mental illness, criminal charges, and the loss of all their personal property.

My heart goes out to both Mrs. AND Mr. Maley and their children. But even if you blame Mr. Maley, I do hope others make donations - at least to help Mrs. Maley and the children.
13 November 2007
at 12:42 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

ashortness (Anonymous) says…

I strongly encourage anyone to donate to help the maleys–they are good people and need community support as much as possible at this time. anyone that wants to post stupid comments and act like an ass can keep their mouths shut cuz if it was their family that this article was about they wouldnt be writing such absurd things. lets not focus on the standoff or arson conspiracy theories here, lets focus on the family in need. thanks.
13 November 2007
at 1:44 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

btowngirl (Anonymous) says…

If you want to make donations I seen flyers today you can donate at Kansas State Bank in Baldwin or you can also mail them to: Kansas State Bank, P.O. Box 720, Baldwin City, KS 66006. Make checks payable to: Maley Family Fire Fund.
15 November 2007
at 2:41 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

costello (Anonymous) says…

Thanks, btowngirl.