Ascent Milwaukee apartment arson attempt, tenant charged

MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee man is charged with attempted arson – accused of trying to set his Ascent luxury apartment on fire Sunday, June 11. 

Prosecutors say 39-year-old Enrique Torres put multiple aerosol cans inside a pot and put it in his oven, turning it on before fleeing the scene.

Milwaukee police met firefighters at the apartment building at Van Buren and Kilbourn around 2 p.m. Sunday. A building manager informed police of the situation, which unfolded on the 24th floor of the 25-story building known as the "largest wooden structure in the world," a criminal complaint states. Two hundred fifty-eight people live there.

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The complaint states the man's apartment smelled of smoke and burned plastic. A maintenance person told police he was asked to remove a pot from the apartment's oven before they arrived. Police looked at the pot and found three aerosol cans of what appeared to be sunscreen, a burned/melted plastic bottle with a substance inside and another burned/melted plastic bottle.

Police also spoke to an employee of New Land MKE, which owns the building. The complaint states that employee heard Torres loudly singing "burn, burn, burn" in the lobby of the building. The employee later saw Torres walking away down Kilbourn while the incident unfolded. A lobby employee said, per the complaint, Torres seemed "unusual and irate" when they spoke earlier that day – saying "get out, get out, get out" and "everything is gonna burn, burn, burn."

Smoke filled the apartment and the hallway causing approximately $2,000 in smoke damage, the complaint states. Surveillance video from the hallway showed nobody other than Torres entered or exited his apartment when the incident occurred.

A competency exam was ordered June 15. Torres is due back in court July 7 for the doctor's report return.