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Ex-employee arrested in Tuesday grocery warehouse fire

9 months 3 days 13 hours ago Tuesday, July 25 2023 Jul 25, 2023 July 25, 2023 5:13 AM July 25, 2023 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - A "disgruntled former employee" who reportedly threatened potential fires has been arrested for a blaze at an Airline Highway grocery store warehouse, according to an arrest warrant.

Trent Carter, 34, was booked with simple arson, terrorizing and unauthorized entry of a place of business in the fire that damaged Shoppers Value Tuesday morning.

Fire crews were called to the Shoppers Value on Airline Highway near Greenwell Street around 2 a.m. Tuesday. No one was injured and investigators found a one-gallon gas can next to paper towels just inside a broken window at the store, the warrant said.

Store owners provided a copy of texts they suspected were sent by a former employee complaining about a co-worker.

"Gm. Please fire (redacted) and (redacted) and make (redacted) the store manager or u will lose a store a week by fire," the message read. WBRZ has redacted the names of the employees mentioned in the text.

The message also said "Pandora's box has been opened," the warrant said.

The fire caused about $50,000 in damage.

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