CEDAR CITY – Cedar City Police, Iron Metro SWAT and Cedar City Fire Department all responded to a home on the 500 West block of 1950 North in Cedar City Saturday where a man reported to be suicidal barricaded himself inside, started a fire and then presented himself aggressively toward officers.
At approximately 8 p.m. on Saturday, Cedar City Police officers responded to the home where 36-year-old Michael Candelaria was barricaded inside and reported to be suicidal.
According to a statement released by the Police Department Sunday, officers had information that Candelaria had assaulted a family member earlier Saturday night and was then suicidal. He had made threats to kill family members and any officers who came to the home.
The Iron Metro SWAT team responded to the scene and attempted to negotiate Candelaria’s peaceful surrender but despite multiple attempts to establish communications with him, those efforts failed.
During this time, the statement said, Candelaria broke some of the windows in the home and smoke began to billow out from inside. It was evident to officers that a fire had been started inside the home.
Candelaria then exited through a bedroom window, carrying a “spear” type weapon and he had knives tied to his hands, the statement said. Once outside, the statement said, he took an aggressive stance and began taunting officers.
Candaleria eventually complied with officers and was safely taken into custody.
The Cedar City Fire Department was on scene and extinguished the fire. Inside the home investigators found accelerants and other evidence to support that Candalaria had set the home on fire. Candalaria was booked into the Iron County Correctional Facility on charges of aggravated arson, domestic violence in the presence of a child, threat of violence, possession of explosive materials, and possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person.
Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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So if he was booked into Iron County, why is he not on their public booking website?
He’ll be on the site tomorrow. Weekend bookings don’t usually show up until like Monday. Think it might be mid-afternoon br we’ll see it.
Hopefully they have him safely locked down in the psychiatric unit of a hospital.
Bookings show up very quickly… If you notice there are some from Friday, Sat and Sun up. So.. why is it not up then?