MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — A Miami Gardens woman was arrested Wednesday after starting a fire inside the efficiency she lives in with her boyfriend, police said.
The fire was reported at 6:13 p.m. Wednesday in the 2900 block of Northwest 156th Street.
According to an arrest report, Tabitha Rebekah Woodard, 30, and her boyfriend have been together for 13 years and have lived in the efficiency together for the past two years.
Miami Gardens police said the couple got into an argument Tuesday night about Woodard’s alleged infidelity.
Police said the argument continued Wednesday morning, and later on in the day, the victim walked to his car and noticed that his tires had been slashed.
According to the report, the victim was unsure whether Woodard was the person who had slashed his tires, so he left to buy new ones and then returned to find his efficiency burning.
Police said a witness who called 911 had gotten home from work first and spotted smoke coming from the efficiency.
He told police that he approached the entrance of it and saw Woodard standing by the door and her mother sitting on a couch inside.
Police said the man told the mother to get out as the efficiency was on fire and then proceeded to call 911. He said Woodard fled the scene at that time.
According to the report, Woodard’s mother told police that she saw her daughter standing by the closet after the victim’s clothes had been set on fire. She said Woodard tried to put the fire out by “tossing a bit of water on it” and then walked out of the home without saying a word, the report stated.
Police said Woodard called her boyfriend while investigators were still at the scene and told him she was coming home.
She was detained upon her arrival.
According to the report, Woodard confessed to lighting a piece of paper over clothing, causing the fire.
She was arrested on a first-degree arson charge.
As of Thursday morning, Woodard was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Online jail records listed her bond as “to be set.”
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