Man charged with starting St. Louis Park apartment fire, threatening people

A man has been charged with intentionally starting a fire at a St. Louis Park apartment building earlier this week.

Kahron Almez Nix, 29, is charged with first-degree arson, threats of violence and first-degree drug possession.

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St. Louis Park police and fire crews responded to the apartment in the 5600 block of Camerata Way at around 8:45 a.m. Tuesday on a report of a fire alarm going off. Police also received several complaints about a man yelling and threatening to kill people.

Officers had responded to the same apartment earlier Tuesday morning on similar complaints, the criminal complaint states.

When they arrived shortly before 9 a.m., officers found a large amount of smoke in a hallway outside Nix’s unit. They determined the smoke was coming from under Nix’s door and from a trash chute in the hallway.

When officers knocked on Nix’s door, he refused to open it and threatened to shoot them, the complaint states. After attempts to deescalate the situation and talk with Nix didn’t work, they tried to open his door with a key but he held it shut and continued threatening them.

The complaint states officers evacuated the building, called SWAT and continued negotiations with Nix for several hours. At around 4 p.m., they breached the apartment and arrested Nix.

Inside his apartment, officers found 67 grams of cocaine and around $3,400 in cash, the complaint states. They also noted burnt paper and fake documents with several different names on them, and later determined that Nix was renting the apartment under another person’s name.

Investigators determined that Nix had set fire to a trash can and then threw it down the unit’s garbage chute, starting a larger fire that caused an estimated $4,700 in damage, the complaint states.

Nix is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Friday afternoon.