Suspect held again in sale of fireworks
Tonawandan tied to blaze last year
A Town of Tonawanda man accused of illegally selling fireworks that sparked a devastating West Side fire last July was arrested Friday after he was caught selling fireworks out of his vehicle again, Buffalo Fire Department officials said.
Leon Sapp Jr., 50, of Midland Avenue, was arrested by Buffalo police and fire marshals after authorities found a cache of fireworks in his vehicle, said Lt. Sal Colangelo of the Fire Marshal’s Office.
“To me it’s kind of shocking that the individual wouldn’t learn his lesson from the last year,” Colangelo said.
At about 1:30 p. m., Officer Dan O’Neill informed fire marshals that he noticed someone driving up and down streets on the West Side selling fireworks from his vehicle, Fire Marshal Edwin Ortiz said.
O’Neill, Ortiz and Fire Marshal George Arthur Jr. stopped the Jeep Cherokee near Rhode Island and Bremen streets, Ortiz said, and a search of the SUV turned up six boxes of commercial fireworks.
Ortiz said he recognized Sapp from last year’s investigation.
“He said, ‘Oh, you got me again,’ ” Ortiz said.
Sapp asked to be let go with a warning, a request that was denied, before giving investigators permission to search his Town of Tonawanda home, Ortiz said.
There, they found about 200 pounds of assorted fireworks, Colangelo said.
He is charged with possession of fireworks and with possession of marijuana, because investigators found pot plants growing in Sapp’s yard.
Additional charges likely will be lodged following a review by the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, Colangelo said.
Last year, Sapp was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and unlawful dealing with fireworks. The disposition of that case was not immediately clear.
Those charges stemmed from a July 2, 2008, fire that started in a bedroom of a home at 235 Vermont St., where a 6- year-old boy ignited a firecracker and put it on a mattress.
The blaze quickly spread throughout the 2z-story house and to adjacent houses at 231 and 237 Vermont and caused exposure damage to a home at 329 Plymouth. The total damage was estimated at $110,000, and the 6-year-old was lucky to escape with his life, Ortiz said.
Fire investigators said at the time they were able to trace the fireworks back to Sapp, who was suspected of bringing them from Pennsylvania.
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