DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. – A Dearborn Heights man is accused of setting a string of fires that included two in the past year at the same strip mall in Inkster.
Federal prosecutors have charged Nicholas Diedo, 35, with arson after a person was shown on surveillance video Feb. 3 intentionally starting a fire at a commercial strip mall on Inkster Road in Inkster.
The surveillance video shows a man pour gas outside the building near the intersection of Inkster and Cherry Hill roads and throw a match onto it, igniting a fire that destroyed five businesses. The man ran through an alley to flee the scene.
Federal investigators say tips led them to Diedo, who is suspected of setting fire to the same strip mall on April 20, 2018. Federal investigators say there is surveillance video from that fire, too, that shows a person pouring accelerant out of an orange Tide bottle, then lighting it on fire with a flare.
Diedo is also suspected of setting his nextdoor neighbor's BMW on fire back June 1, 2018. Furthermore, he's suspected of targeting some of his other neighbors, who are of Middle Eastern decent. Federal investigators said police reports show between April 15, 2018 and April 22, 2018, five vehicles parked at residences within less than a mile of Diedo's home were intentionally set on fire.
And back in December 2016, federal investigators say Diedo was suspected of setting two other vehicles on fire at a strip mall on Ford Road in Dearborn Heights, about a mile from his home.
It's unclear what the exact motive in any of these fires may be.
Diedo was arrested in March 2018 on suspicion of stealing license plates off vehicles. He was subsequently charged with a felony charge of forgery.
Finally, a search warrant was executed Monday by members of the ATF, Dearborn Heights, and Inkster police departments at Diedo's home in Dearborn Heights. Federal investigators say they found a list of evidence at Diedo's home including clothing shown in the surveillance videos, a Molotov cocktail, plastic jugs that are shown on the video, Gatorade bottles filled with gasoline, and bricks tied to ropes in a manner in which the rope would be used to assist in throwing the brick through a window.
Diedo was arrested and is charged with maliciously destroying a building used in interstate commerce by means of fire, or arson.