“We don’t know who he is or why he did it,” Knox County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Martha Dooley told XBiz.
The incident occurred at about 4 a.m. on Jan. 31. Dooley said a clerk working at the Town and Country Book Den spotted a man in the parking lot pouring gasoline from a fuel can onto the store. According to Dooley, the clerk went outside to confront the man and discovered he was wearing a ski mask and brandishing a rifle.
“The suspect asked the clerk if there were any other people inside,” Dooley said. “The clerk said there were not, and the man told him he needed to leave immediately.”
The clerk ran to a nearby convenience store and called 911, but by the time fire trucks arrived on the scene, the fire had already destroyed a portion of the building.
Although the investigation is ongoing and details are limited, Dooley said it appears as though the arsonist may have poured gasoline inside the building, judging from the extent of the damage.
Knox County Fire Department Captain Jeff Devlin said the store's interior was heavily damaged and much of its inventory lost.
Dooley added that police at this time have no leads regarding the arsonist’s identity or his motive for setting the store on fire.
