A felon on probation was arrested late Thursday after allegedly making threats in front of a Hot Springs police officer to burn down a local convenience store with the manager inside.
Deangelo Jerome Ford, 35, who lists a South Patterson Street address, was taken into custody shortly before midnight at the Valero, 1201 Central Ave., and charged with a felony count of first-degree terroristic threatening, punishable by up to six years in prison, and a misdemeanor count of criminal trespassing, punishable by up to one year in jail.
Ford was being held on a $3,500 bond and was set to appear Friday in Garland County District Court.
Ford was previously convicted on Feb. 22, 2021, in Garland County Circuit Court of two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening and impairing a vital public facility and sentenced to 10 years' probation after threatening to kill a police officer during a confrontation at the same Valero and later threatening to kill a Garland County sheriff's deputy and destroying a television at the Garland County Detention Center.
According to the probable cause affidavit for Thursday's arrest, Officer A.J. Tart responded to the Valero regarding a known suspect, identified as Ford, trespassing there again.
When he arrived, he saw Ford standing on the sidewalk at the store's entrance. The manager said Ford had been on the property despite being banned from the premises since June 2019. He said Ford "has been nothing but a problem for him" and he wanted to pursue a trespassing charge.
Tart took Ford into custody and at that point, Ford allegedly started saying he was "going to burn the Valero down." As Tart walked Ford to his unit, Ford reportedly looked directly at the manager and stated he was "going to lock him in the store and blow it up and kill him."
Tart noted Ford continued to make threats of killing the manager and law enforcement during the drive to the detention center so he was charged with the additional felony count.