Saturday, February 5, 2011

Man charged with assault, arson at Des Moines apartment



Categories: DM in the PM
A 20-year-old man faces assault and arson charges after allegedly threatening to blow up his Des Moines apartment home in a dispute with a staff member there Friday.
Des Moines police arrested Daniel Beener at 2900 E. Walnut St. shortly before 2 p.m. Friday. Beener allegedly fought with staff members at the apartment house on Walnut Street where he lives.
He struck a female staff member with a rock, a police report said. Then he entered another apartment and destroyed a vacuum cleaner and punched a hole in drywall, witnesses told police. Beener allegedly took a chunk of the broken drywall and struck a male staff member over the head with it.
The male staff member dialed 911. While the man was on the phone with dispatchers, Beener allegedly could be heard yelling, “I’m going to blow this place up because I want to kill” the female staff member.
Beener turned on four gas burners and opened an oven door. Police arrived and took Beener into custody. Polk County prosecutors charged him with two counts of assault causing injury, criminal mischief and first-degree arson.
He was being held in the Polk County Jail with $29,000 bond late Friday.