A photograph shows the wreckage left after a sick creep allegedly tried to murder a homeless man by setting fire to his makeshift camp on a Los Angeles sidewalk.
Richard Smallets, 32, took the photos after torching the cardboard camp next to the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale while a homeless man slept underneath in the early hours of Sept. 12, local authorities said Tuesday.
Photos released by police show pieces of cardboard engulfed in flames on the sidewalk — the area where the man was asleep later reduced to a charred rubble.
The victim was awakened by the smell of smoke around 1:22 a.m. and realized the cardboard he was sleeping under was on fire, Glendale Police Department said in a press release published on Facebook.
The homeless man tried to extinguish the fire on the corner of Harvard St. and Brand Blvd. but was unsuccessful and the Glendale Fire Department was eventually called to put out the blaze.
Smallets was arrested and charged with attempted murder and arson on Sept. 13 and remains in custody in lieu of $1 million bail, cops said.
Detectives found surveillance footage of a man intentionally lighting the cardboard on fire before standing back and taking photos of the inferno he had created — later cuffing Smallets and charging him.