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Man sets fire to dollar store
Damon Cooper was arrested today after police say he walked into a McKinney Dollar Tree store, poured lighter fluid around the interior of the building and set it ablaze. This picture is one of many posted on Cooper's Facebook account alluding to what Cooper believed were conspiratorial forces that were harassing him.
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
Police on Monday arrested a man who distributed hundreds of flyers stating his case before setting fire to a dollar store in McKinney.
Around 1:30 p.m., McKinney police received a call from the Dollar Tree store on the southeast corner of Eldorado Parkway and Central Expressway. The caller said a man, soon determined to be 33-year-old Damon Cooper, had entered the store and begun pouring lighter fluid all over, said McKinney Deputy Chief Joe Ellenburg.
A nearby police officer responded to the call, and immediately saw flames in the back of the store. When additional officers arrived on scene, Cooper began throwing canned goods at the windows.
McKinney fire personnel arrived shortly thereafter to extinguish the fire before it spread to adjacent businesses.
Surrounding businesses between Albertsons, north of the Dollar Tree, and Kohls, south of the store, were evacuated as a safety precaution, said Stacie Durham, McKinney Fire Department public information officer. No one was injured or burned during the incident.
Scattered all over the Dollar Tree parking lot when police arrived were white flyers with black print that read the following:
"My name is Damon Cooper...I am being followed, threatened, watched, set-up, stalked, attempted to be committed, imprisoned and much more from state to state by Dollar Trees Inc., N.Y.P.D., Texas P.D., N.C.P.D., Az P.D., Georgia County Superior Court, Wal-Mart, maybe more...They even tried to kill me..."
The flyers also allude to Cooper's Facebook account, which shows pictures of more written documents with similar statements, and of license plates on cars that are claimed to belong to "a cop or Dollar Tree Stores security or Wal-Mart security."
Also on Cooper's account are frequent posts -- pictures and statements -- that illustrate an ongoing legal battle Cooper is having with multiple government institutions spread across several states, namely Washington D.C., North Carolina, Arizona and Texas.
Referring to himself as "Tha Great Dame," Cooper seems to have been planning Monday's act. He posted the following on his account about an hour before he set the store on fire:
"This is officially the day to start the Fish Grease so to all my true family and friends until we meet again...I will be going to my old employers store that I honestly believe they built out here around the corner from me to get me upset but I didn't respond to their continued attacks until now so look out for the information about what happened to the Dollar Tree Store in McKinney ,TX."
Cooper has been charged with Felony 2 arson, and is being held at the Collin County Detention Center.
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