SARASOTA – A Sarasota woman is behind bars and charged with five counts of attempted murder and committing arson.
35-year-old Andrea Allen of Sarasota has been arrested after allegedly setting a house on fire while one-year-old twins and three women were inside of a home.
“We responded to a home on Palmadelia Avenue about 8:30 PM on New Year ’s Eve December 31st for a report of a fire and once we got on scene we learned that this had happened early on in the morning,” said Sarasota Police Department PIO, Genevieve Judge.
Authorities say, Allen left the house around 11PM on December 30th and when she returned hours later, she heard two women talking inside a bedroom with the window open. Victims say they believe Allen overheard the conversation.
“That’s when she threatened to burn the house down, a short time later, there was smoke there was fire and the house was burning,” said Judge.
According to the police report, Allen entered the living room and demanded one of the women leave, she later walked outside and returned inside with a lighter in one hand and a gas can in the other, telling the victims “you think I’m playing?”
“It’s heartbreaking to know that anybody would want to do harm to anyone else, let alone you put tin the fact that there were twins that were in the home that are only one-year-old, there was a person that was wheelchair bound, thankfully everyone got out alive,” said Judge.
One of the victims was able to grab the twin boys off the couch and run out of the house. Once outside, the victims saw smoke coming from the home and saw Allen jumping out of a bedroom window. Allen, along with one of the women victims were taken to Blake Medical Center for treatment.
“Once we executed a search warrant, within the first 24 hours we actually found a lighter and an accelerant as well that the victims had told us about, we found those on scene, through our search warrant so this could’ve been much different, we could’ve been talking about the death of five people but thankfully we are not,” said Judge.
“I’m not sure how many people actually lived in the home I just knew of one person that was wheelchair bound that was the first person I asked about then I asked about the kids, which was my biggest concern, that there was no loss of life,” said Neighbor of 15 years, Simone Wilkinson.
Allen was arrested after being treated at the burn unit and is currently being held at the Sarasota County Jail on no bond.
Anyone with any information on this case or additional cases involving Allen, is asked to call Sarasota Police Detective Maria Llovio at 941-263-6836 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers by calling 941-366-TIPS or online at www.sarasotacrimestoppers.com
