Indianapolis, IN
Man, 45, facing three counts of arson in IndyGo bus fire
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Kelly Wilkinson, kelly.wilkinson@indystar.com
The man accused of setting an IndyGo bus on fire last week was found with two lighters and smelled like “ignitable liquid” when he was arrested about a quarter mile from the scene, according to court documents.
The bus was engulfed in flames at a stop on the north side of Indianapolis near the intersection of 38th Street and Meridian Streets on the morning of April 24.
The 45-year-old man taken into custody in connection with the arson was located at a McDonald’s restaurant down 38th Street.
There were four people on the bus, including the driver. The bus driver said all passengers evacuated through the middle door of the vehicle. Indianapolis Fire Department officials said two passengers were transported to Eskenazi Hospital to treat slight injuries afterwards.
Investigators used survelliance footage and information from the bus driver to make an arrest, according to a probable cause affidavit for the suspect’s arrest.
IndyGo had cameras inside the bus and at the bus stop shelter. The man arrested at the McDonald’s had the same clothing on as the man who set the bus ablaze in the video, the affidavit reads.
The video showed the man getting on the bus at the transit center in downtown Indianapolis around 6:45 a.m. He was carrying a clear, plastic milk jug with a brown liquid inside.
About 20 minutes later, the video showed the man on the bus lighting a piece of paper on fire then blowing it out. He then moved to a seat closer to the bus’ exit and pretended to drink from the milk jug, according to the affidavit.
Previous coverage: IndyGo bus fire at 38th and Meridian ends in arson arrest
At about 7:10 a.m., as the bus was approaching the stop, the video showed the man pouring the liquid out of the jug then lighting paper on fire and throwing it toward the liquid on the floor of the bus, the affidavit reads.
The liquid ignited into a large ball of fire, the video showed. The bus driver told investigators he had stopped the bus and was walking to the back to ask the man what was in the jug when the man started the fire, according to the affidavit.
The passenger who started the fire had ridden the bus a few other times in the week prior, the bus driver stated. The driver identified the man detained at McDonald’s as the arsonist, the affidavit reads.
The bus was a 2018 2018 BYD all-electric bus and the damage from the fire cost IndyGo $2.1 million, investigators learned.
Demarcus McCloud was arrested in connection with the arson. He is charged with two counts of arson as well as arson resulting in bodily injury, court records show.
McCloud has faced charges in several other criminal cases filed in Marion County in the past five years, including several drug-related cases. An attorney for McCloud was not yet listed in online court records before publication of this article.
McCloud is currently in custody at Marion County’s Adult Detention Center, but prosecutors have filed a motion asking he be ordered to stay away from all IndyGo buses and stations if he were to be released before a trial.
Prosecutors also filed a motion requesting a greater than standard bond for McCloud.
“Defendant is a risk to the safety of the community, due to the nature of the allegations against him in this case,” prosecutors wrote in that motion.
Online court records were not yet updated with scheduling information on the next hearing in the case before publication of this article.
Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Allen19.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on June 17 gave AES the nod to raise electricity rates enough to earn an additional $71 million each year, a decision that drew reproof from Indiana lawmakers who called it another blow to cost-burdened consumers.
The approved rate represents less than half of the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It’s also less than the $91 million increase proposed in an October settlement agreement between AES, the city of Indianapolis and major electricity consumers like Kroger and Walmart.
But the new rate is still significantly more than what the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, the state agency representing ratepayers in the case, recommended in September. The OUCC’s proposal would have capped AES’s annual operating revenue at $21 million less than the current level.
The rate increase authorizes AES to earn a total of nearly $2 billion each year, or an estimated $384 million in profit.
The higher base rate comes as a double whammy for Indianapolis-area households, who are already paying more for electricity this summer after AES temporarily raised rates to account for higher-than-anticipated fuel costs during last winter’s storms. The increase also arrives against the backdrop of inflation, which rose to a three-year high last month, and surging gas prices due to the war in Iran.
Gov. Mike Braun wrote in a Wednesday post to X that he was “deeply disappointed” by the IURC’s approval of the rate increase.
“Hoosiers have spent years tightening their belts and making tough financial decisions,” Braun wrote. “It’s time for utility companies to do the same.”
The IURC’s decision also drew fire from the other side of the aisle. In a June 17 news release, five Democrats representing Indianapolis in the state Senate – J.D. Ford, Andrea Hunley, La Keisha Jackson, Fady Qaddoura, and Greg Taylor – chastised Indiana’s Republican supermajority for failing to rein in rising utility costs.
“Hoosiers pay more. Monopoly utilities collect more. And the leaders in the super-majority who promise affordability over and over again show those are just empty words,” the news release said. “Instead, they continue to defend a system that takes more and more out of our paychecks.”
The consumer advocacy group Citizens Action Coalition also slammed the rate increase. Ben Inskeep, CAC’s program director, said the decision left him “less optimistic that this commission is willing to do things differently and to actually hold utilities accountable.”
He said the IURC should have penalized AES for issues that plagued customers after the utility updated its billing system in 2023, including duplicated withdrawals for the same monthly bill.
The rate increase will take effect in two phases, with rates going up in July 2026 and January 2027. AES officials anticipate the hikes “will be less than $5 per month per phase” for a household that uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month, according to a Wednesday news release from the utility.
“The IURC’s decision reflects a thorough, transparent process and balances the need for continued investment in the electric system with a focus on customer affordability,” the news release stated.
Under a state law that Braun signed in February, AES cannot ask for another increase to its base rate until January 2030 — though electricity bills could still go up for other reasons, like the fuel adjustment charge hitting consumers this month.
Three members of the five-member IURC signed off on the rate increase: Andy Zay, David Veleta, and David Ziegner. Commissioner Bob Deig dissented. Commissioner Anthony Swinger recused himself from the decision because he worked on the AES rate case for the OUCC before he was appointed to the IURC by Braun in January.
“None of this was taken lightly,” Zay, the IURC’s chair, said at the Wednesday hearing, adding that the commission and its staff had carefully weighed concerns about affordability. The commissioners did not go into further detail at the hearing.
But the commission’s order shows some of the debates that played out during the rate case. One point of contention was AES’s authorized return on equity — that is, how much the utility can earn each year in profits. Other disputes hinged on how AES forecasts its operating expenses.
The OUCC accused AES of including more than 100 “phantom hires,” vacant positions it did not necessarily intend to fill in its calculations. Last year, AES said that the rising costs of vegetation management, or trimming trees around power lines, also drove the need to raise rates. The OUCC recommended keeping vegetation management costs flat.
One factor that’s not driving higher prices? Data centers.
AES does not currently provide service to any data centers and did not include them in its calculations, AES president Brandi Davis-Handy said in testimony before the IURC.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
Interactive radar | Weather alerts by county
WATCH LIVE COVERAGE
(WRTV) — A tornado watch has been issued through 1 a.m. EDT Thursday for much of Indiana, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said.
The watch area covers 47 of Indiana’s 92 counties, and includes Indianapolis and its surrounding counties.
Counties in the watch area are Bartholomew, Blackford, Boone, Brown, Carroll, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Daviess, Decatur, Delaware, Fountain, Grant, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Henry, Howard, Huntington, Jackson, Jay, Jennings, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Martin, Miami, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Randolph, Rush, Shelby, Sullivan, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Vermillion, Vigo, Wabash, Warren, and White.
WRTV Meteorologist Ryan Morse says Wednesday afternoon’s rain was the first of two rounds coming to the Hoosier state. A line of supercells were expected to form in Illinois and travel into central Indiana.
In neighboring Illinois, dozens of counties are under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. CDT/11 p.m. EST.
All threats of severe weather were on the table: damaging wind, strong tornadoes, large hail, and flooding.
Severe storms should exit Indiana in the early morning hours.
WISH-TV Meteorologist Keith Gibson says people should have multiple ways of getting alerts and have electronic devices fully charged in case they lose power.
The next chance for rain after these storms could be on Saturday.
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