LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Neighbors used their cars to stop a man who they believe is connected to terrorizing a 72-year-old woman for months. They say someone set the woman’s home on fire earlier this month.
Russell McLaren was arrested Wednesday night after the woman’s roommate spotted him walking toward the home with containers of liquid. The roommate and a neighbor used their vehicles to push McLaren into a fence, people on scene told FOX5.
Six months of escalating attacks
The harassment began about six months ago near I-15 and Craig Road, near Walnut. Surveillance cameras installed on police advice captured the escalating attacks.
Over the summer, someone shot small yellow balls through the elderly woman’s windows. In November, a masked person spray-painted “WARNING” on the home, according to the family.
On January 3, home surveillance video shows someone throwing liquid on the home and igniting it. The fire burned until smoke detectors alerted the elderly woman inside, who put the fire out.
“Because he was coming to kill my mom with what he had on him,” said Melonie Keeran-Bolen, the woman’s daughter who lives in New Mexico.
Recent attacks intensify
Early on January 11, someone threw rocks through the woman’s windows and struck again around noon the same day.
Just before midnight that day, video shows a man with containers in both hands approaching the home but walking away without setting anything on fire.
“What we’re assuming is to pour four gallons of gas inside the windows to start a fire inside the house on fire. But the windows were already boarded up by then,” Keeran-Bolen said.
Connection to deceased son
Ring camera footage offers more insight. A man who called himself Russ appeared at the home in December asking about Brady, the elderly woman’s son, who lived there. Melonie Keeran-Bolen was speaking to him from New Mexico on Ring…