Officer Charged With Setting Fire to Parsonage
<i> United Press International</i>
HOUSTON —
A veteran policeman who was named officer of the year in 1989 for rescuing two people from fires was charged Friday with setting a blaze in the parsonage of the city’s oldest black Baptist church.
Sgt. Oliver Brown was relieved of duty pending the outcome of an investigation into the Thursday night fire that heavily damaged the pastor’s home at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, police spokesman Dan Turner said.
Witnesses told police that they saw Brown, 62, crawl out of a window at the home just before the fire was noticed.
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