ATLANTA (AP) -- The Atlanta man arrested for arson last week was a former Chatham County drug officer who served a federal sentence for selling cocaine that had been impounded for evidence, federal officials said Friday.
Christopher Mock, a 43-year-old cab driver, was arrested on suspicion of setting fire at a DeKalb County medical office. A trial date has not yet been set.
Authorities are still investigating whether Mock had anything to do with a string of arsons in other neighborhoods since mid-August. About a dozen fires had been set to old apartment buildings in Atlanta's Midtown and surrounding neighborhoods. Fire officials believe the fires were the work of one person.
But as of Friday, Mock has not been charged for any additional fires, said Glenn Allen, spokesman for the Insurance and Fire Commissioner's office.
Mock previously was a Chatham County police officer for 3 1/2 years, county officials said. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 1991 after being convicted for selling cocaine that he and his partner had collected for evidence, said Dan Drake, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Savannah.
In last week's arrest, a federal complaint said Mock was seen on a security videotape in a medical building on Oct. 25, the night a hallway in the building was set on fire.
In addition, the complaint said Mock's cab included a global positioning satellite, or GPS. Federal agents said in a criminal complaint that records from Mock's GPS puts him near two other apartment fires set in October.
Mock's cab held a bottle containing liquid that smelled like gasoline, the complaint said. When agents interviewed Mock, according to the complaint, they asked why he set fires.
His response, agents wrote, was, ``It would be something like they harass me till I would lose my temper, and I would take out what was closest.''
