Nov. 15--HYANNIS -- Three teenagers who police said were sleeping in the woods were arrested Wednesday for allegedly sparking a blaze that destroyed the announcer's booth at Marshall J. Lopes Jr. Field after they sought shelter during a rainstorm.
The booth was near homeless camps that police had already planned to dismantle before winter hit.
Police and firefighters were called to the softball field on Old Colony Road at 8:20 Wednesday morning and found the small, two-story booth engulfed in flames, Hyannis fire Lt. John Cosmo said.
Firefighters pulled three burned mattresses from the building, which was demolished for safety reasons soon after the fire was extinguished.
There are no utilities such as electricity or gas connected to the booth, and it appears the fire was caused by the people staying inside the building, Cosmo said.
The three teens were arrested on Ocean Street a short time later in connection with the fire, Barnstable police Detective John York, an arson investigator, said.
Katie Lennon, 17, and Ivan Parker, 18, both of Falmouth, and Darren Schuyler, 18, of Marstons Mills were charged with breaking and entering at night with intent to commit a felony and burning personal property, York said.
The teens forced their way into the booth during a heavy downpour overnight, he said. They pulled the mattresses in with them from the nearby woods, Detective Sgt. Mark Mellyn said.
They said the fire started accidentally when one of them threw a match into a pile of blankets and said they fled when they couldn't put it out, York said.
While speaking with the teens, York said, he recognized Lennon and Parker from video he had viewed in connection with a case of a stolen credit card. The credit card was stolen around Nov. 3 and used at eight or nine stores on Main Street in Hyannis, York said.
Lennon and Parker were charged with fraudulent use of a credit card, larceny over $250 and forgery, he said. The teens were arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Barnstable District Court and held overnight in the Barnstable County Correctional Facility for a bail hearing today.
Parker had been arrested three times in the previous six days for additional crimes, ranging from shoplifting to assault with a knife, police said.
Marshall J. Lopes Jr. Field was dedicated in 1983 in memory of a 32-year-old hairstylist who died in a motorcycle accident the year before after he spent the afternoon playing ball, according to Times archives.
Police and fire investigators found a campsite behind the announcer's booth that contained a tent, tarp and clothing.
Police are in the process of identifying all outdoor areas in Hyannis used by homeless people overnight and will be removing the camps in the near future, Barnstable Police Chief Paul MacDonald said, adding that this is an annual effort.
The primary areas where the camps are located are south of South Street and west of Old Colony Road, off Nantucket Street and near Old Yarmouth Road, MacDonald said.
"We have identified 17 different camps," he said, adding that some of these are inactive.
Police are now trying to contact people living in these areas to warn them that the camps will be torn down soon and to direct them to services they may need, MacDonald said.
"The exposure is how many of these people pass away," he said, adding that it is inhumane to let people sleep outside during the winter. "Calling these a camp is really not fair. It's squalor. It's disgusting."
Although police have to take down the camps each year, the number of camps has dropped through the years, MacDonald said. "They're down dramatically," he said, adding that when police first started addressing the situation a decade ago, a single camp could have 18 or 19 individuals.
Now there are maybe about 20 "hard-core" homeless people sleeping in all of the areas combined, he said.
"It's a tough issue," said Heidi Nelson, CEO of Duffy Health Center, adding that her organization supports the efforts by police.
There is clearly overlap among the people who sleep in the woods, stay in the homeless shelter on Winter Street, hang out on the Village Green and hang out on Main Street, Nelson said.
"We outreach to all those folks," she said.
An initiative to help a core population of homeless people on Main Street has been successful, Nelson said.
More than half of the 93 people originally identified as part of that initiative several years ago have found housing, and the number of people on that list now hovers between 15 and 35, she said.
The Main Street Initiative, a program of the Cape and Islands Regional Network to Address Homelessness, continues to meet and work on the issue, including through the education of Main Street merchants on how to address people hanging out around their businesses, Nelson said.
For some of these people, including those living in the woods, finding transitional housing can be difficult, Nelson said.
"A lot of the housing we have when they first come in off the street requires sobriety," she said.
Other people may have mental health issues, she said.
"It's just a consistent presence and a constant outreach to those folks," Nelson said.
Copyright 2012 - Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.
