SUSPECTED DRUG DEALER CHARGED IN FIRE ATTACKS

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Metro police
arrested a man Wednesday who they say is a drug dealer who gave two men
crack in payment for firebombing two Trinity Lane area houses.

Rufus A. Thompson, 24, gave two men cocaine for torching the houses with
Molotov cocktails, a federal grand jury charged in a 19-count indictment.

Agents arrested Thompson, who also goes by the name ''Bones,'' in the 300
block of Marie Street in east Nashville, ATF spokesman Todd Reichert said.

Two houses on Joy Circle were firebombed in the spring.

An anti-crime activist was targeted, along with a couple with an infant
son. The baby suffered minor smoke inhalation, but no one else was hurt.

The fires, however, put neighbors on edge.

In July, William Leslie Hunnicutt pleaded guilty to a federal weapons
charge and admitted throwing a Molotov cocktail into the home of Ray and
Pam Matheney at 1814 Joy Circle on May 1.

Gregory Potter, 38, 132 Marie St., was indicted along with Thompson.

Potter is in prison for parole violations and unrelated charges, the ATF said.

''His parole was revoked shortly after the attacks,'' Reichert said.

The attacks took place over four days.

Reichert would not disclose the motive for the bombings, but there has been
speculation that neighborhood activist Rita Viramontes' home was targeted
because she tried to rid her neighborhood of crime. Viramontes founded the
group Neighbors against Crime. Her house at 1838 Joy Circle was hit April
28 and 30.

Thompson wanted both houses torched and took Hunnicutt and Potter to Joy
Circle to show them which ones to hit, the indictment alleges.

Reichert said agents and police have neighbors to thank for being brave and
helping them solve the crime.

''This is, in my opinion, a good example of what can happen when a
neighborhood works with police and comes forward in the face of great
intimidation,'' Reichert said.