Man arrested after lighting multiple people on fire, resulting in house fire, two deaths

BYRAM, Miss. (WLBT) - A man has been charged with two counts of capital murder and arson after he allegedly set seven people on fire in Byram that killed two and injured five others.

On Easter Sunday, first responders were called to a structure fire at 746 Gary Dr. in Byram just after 7:00 p.m.

When officials with the Byram Police Department and multiple local first responders arrived on the scene, the house was fully engulfed and several individuals outside the structure were severely burned, along with the body of a man later identified as 77-year-old Filiberto Torres.

EMS ground and air support crews responded to the scene to treat multiple patients. Five people were transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center with critical injuries and one other victim was transported to Baptist Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Three individuals remain in the hospital, according to a news release from the Byram Police Department.

Two days later on April 11, Byram Police were notified by hospital staff that one patient, Hose Thomas Segura Juarez, 45, succumbed to his injuries after being air-lifted to the MED in Memphis Tennessee.

After further investigation between Byram Police and the district fire marshal, it was determined the fire was set intentionally after a “verbal argument” by the suspect, Marcos Uriel Lara Perez, 31.

It was determined by officials that Perez lit the house on fire after throwing a bucket of gasoline on all of the victims before igniting the gas with a cigarette lighter, causing the house to go up in flames.

WLBT was told by Byram Police that the suspect and the victims are all men. They also all lived together at the residence.

Perez has been charged with two counts of capital murder and three counts of aggravated assault.

Perez was also injured in the fire and is currently being treated in a burn facility in Alabama. Byram Police Chief David Errington told WLBT that the suspect is currently unconscious and “could be hospitalized for a while.”

The chief tells WLBT that it this was “honestly horrifying,” and the “worst traumatic event he’d seen aside from a car wreck.”

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