David Crawford believed he had several scores to settle.
The former Laurel, Maryland, police chief spent the better part of a decade nursing old grudges and carrying out vendettas against anyone he believed had wronged him.
The law enforcement veteran was arrested this week and is facing multiple charges in connection to at least a dozen fires he is alleged to have started.
Crawford, who has been described as a “serial arsonist,” kept a “target list” of fire victims on his cellphone, Howard County Police Chief Lisa Myers said at a Thursday news conference. She also called Crawford a “dangerous criminal.”
The 69-year-old former top cop was denied bond at a bail review hearing, which also took place on Thursday. He was charged with 24 counts of attempted first- and second-degree murder and more than two dozen counts of arson and malicious burning.
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“All of the fires were at night,” the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department said. “In six of the arsons, the victims and their families were inside their homes asleep.”
In one case, prosecutors said Crawford set a house in Clarksburg on fire in 2016 and again in 2017. When the occupants moved to a new home in the same town, Crawford torched their new house as well. Police records identified the man as Crawford’s stepson and noted that the two had a “strained” relationship marked by numerous arguments.
The arsons took place in Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, Howard County, Frederick County, and Charles County from 2011 to 2020. Because the fires were scattered across multiple Maryland counties, it made it difficult for authorities to link them together. They caught their big break after the last known fire on Nov. 17, 2020, in Clarksburg, when a link between the victims was discovered that eventually led the authorities to Crawford.
“Through the course of the investigation, it was determined that the structures and vehicles that Crawford intentionally set on fire were connected to victims with whom he had previous disagreements,” authorities said.
They added that Crawford would mask his identity by wearing a sweatshirt with the hood drawn tightly around his face.
“The arsonist exhibited a similar pattern of behavior using gallon jugs filled with gasoline and a stick wrapped in cloth to set the fires,” police said.
He also purportedly caught his leg on fire during one of the arsons.
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Crawford’s alleged victims include a former city of Laurel official, three former law enforcement officials including a former Laurel police chief, two relatives, two of Crawford’s former physicians, and a neighbor.
