MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade police arrested a 37-year-old Hollywood man Wednesday after accusing him of lighting a car on fire back in April.
Police said the car belonged to Melvin Alain Cintron’s then-girlfriend, who also happened to be his cousin.
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According to an arrest report, Cintron was caught on camera April 29 lighting the Jaguar XE sedan on fire in front of a home along Northwest 120th Street and Fifth Avenue, near North Miami. Police said he also left a cellphone behind.
Police said they determined soon after that the vehicle belonged to Cintron’s girlfriend and cousin, but weren’t able to interview her until Monday after failed attempts to contact her over the subsequent months following the crime.
She said she initially lied to investigators and told them the car caught fire as she drove home because she feared reprisals from Cintron, who made her put the phone on speaker whenever she spoke to investigators, the report states.
The woman told police that she fears Cintron in part because he regularly carries a fully automatic gun with a double-drum high capacity magazine, which she told officers he refers to as the gun’s “t-----s,” due to the two round drums on the sides of the magazine, the report states.
She also told police that Cintron stole her purse and left her stranded at Miami’s Bayside Marketplace Friday after the two got into an argument because he thought she was flirting with the bartender. The purse contained numerous items, including $1,200 in cash, police said.
After issuing a warrant Monday, police said officers later located Cintron outside of a business east of Hialeah and arrested him at gunpoint Wednesday.
As of Thursday afternoon, he was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $12,500 bond on charges of second-degree arson and third-degree grand theft.