LEOMINSTER — On Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023, Detective Oswaldo Ramos of the Leominster Police Department received a telephone call from Deputy Jonathan Campagna with the Leominster Fire Department requesting his assistance with a fire that occurred in the early hours of Dec. 19, 2023.
(The account and quotations in this article were taken from Det. Ramos’ Initial Report.)
“Deputy Campagna told me that this particular fire occurred behind the Tavern 13 bar in the metal dumpster and that the fire department was able to arrive and put out the fire,” Det. Ramos said. “Deputy Campagna indicated that the dumpster was near the Monoosnoc Brook footbridge behind the Wyman’s Liquors store. Deputy Campagna expressed his concerns that this may not have been an accidental fire and that someone may have set it (arson) and asked if I could review the city FLIR [Forward Looking InfraRed] cameras in the area. I told Deputy Campagna I could review the footage but wanted to meet him at the scene first to document the dumpster and the area around it.”
Det. Ramos then responded to the area behind Tavern 13 where he met Deputy Campagna.
When he arrived on scene, Det. Ramos observed a red dumpster with its left-side plastic lid missing. There were remnants of the lid, showing burns and melted plastic, along the metal rod at the rear where the lid was attached to the dumpster. Det. Ramos also noticed damage to the right-side lid, where the plastic had melted, causing the lid’s structure to bend along its right edge.
“Deputy Campagna discussed how this may have been arson and that if it was arson, we should gather video from the area to see if any additional information could be obtained,” Det. Ramos said. “While continuing to speak with Deputy Campagna, he expressed concern about this arson fire and identified William Ryan Couture (2/26/1986) as a person of interest.”
William Ryan Couture, 37, is homeless, but has a prior residential address of 35 Third Street, Apt. 3, in Leominster. He’s on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and unmarried. According to court documents, in July 2023, police were warned to use caution and PPE when interacting with Couture because he “may be positive for TB.”
“Deputy Campagna and I discussed Mr. William Couture as a person of interest in this dumpster fire and that he has also been a person of interest in several other suspicious fires,” Det. Ramos said.
One of the other suspicious fires the two mentioned was in an exterior trash receptacle at the Auto Shower Carwash located at 243 Lancaster Street on May 27, 2023.
“It should be noted that I was also involved in investigating this suspicious fire at the Auto Shower Carwash, at which time Mr. William Couture was also considered a person of interest,” Det. Ramos said. Adding, “It should also be noted that William Couture has prior convictions for burning offenses on two separate occasions, resulting in a guilty status.” Couture was found guilty for violating Massachusetts General Law (MGL) 266 Section 1 “Dwelling houses; burning or aiding in burning” out of Leominster District Court on two separate occasions, once on Aug. 8, 2014, and again on Sept. 11, 2015.
Det. Ramos told Deputy Campagna that he would review the city’s FLIR cameras to see if they captured anyone in the area around the time of the fire.
“When I spoke with Deputy Campagna, he informed me that the call for service for the dumpster fire came in after 8:00 a.m., and responding firefighters were able to extinguish the fire quickly,” Det. Ramos said.
Det. Ramos returned to the Leominster Police Department and accessed the city-wide FLIR video surveillance camera footage of the area of the Monoosnoc Brook behind Wyman’s Liquors, including a small pedestrian bridge over the brook. He began reviewing the FLIR video footage at 7:31 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023.
“In this FLIR surveillance camera, you could observe a small walking path along the brook, the pedestrian bridge over the brook, and the red dumpster that was burnt in the background of the pedestrian bridge off to the left,” Det. Ramos said.
“At around 7:33 a.m., I observed a white male enter the video footage and begin walking on the walking path heading towards the pedestrian footbridge. This subject appeared to be William Couture, known to be homeless and always hanging around this general area,” Det. Ramos said. “This subject then walks slowly towards the bridge, occasionally stopping to look into the brook and kick a small white object into the brook, possibly a ball or empty milk container.”
As the male subject walked closer into the video footage, Det. Ramos observed that he was wearing a long black winter jacket, a black winter beanie hat, a gray sweater with a black logo, and black pants with gray sneakers. He was also carrying a black Adidas backpack featuring a white Adidas logo and white stripes.
“This subject makes his way across the bridge and walks out of view by walking towards the right of the bridge; this same subject then returns into view and walks in the direction of the red dumpster that had caught on fire; it appears that this subject walks towards the dumpster at around 7:36 a.m. and appears to stop at the dumpster and remained next to the dumpster for a few minutes. It should be noted that once this subject walks behind the dumpster, he is no longer observed on the FLIR video footage,” Det. Ramos explained.
Det. Ramos then contacted Tavern 13 bar – spoke with Amanda Morse – and asked if there was any surveillance footage from behind the tavern that could assist with his investigation.
“Ms. Morse subsequently provided me with video footage for the morning of December 19th, 2023, that began at 7:49 a.m. and consisted of this same male walking away from the dumpster and continually peering back at the dumpster suspiciously,” Det. Ramos said. “Ms. Morse also informed me that the time of the video footage was off by about ten minutes, so if the times indicated 7:49 a.m., it was 7:39 a.m.”
After reviewing the surveillance footage provided by Tavern 13, Det. Ramos contacted Morse again and asked if she had any additional footage she could provide him with because he wanted to see what the man was doing behind the dumpster before he walked away.
“Ms. Morse informed me that their current video surveillance footage is motion-sensitive and automatically begins to record once it senses any motion, so there was no other video to provide,” Det. Ramos said. “I then returned to my investigation and began to view both the FLIR video and Tavern 13 video; after reviewing them both, I determined that once this male stopped at the dumpster, he was not in range of the motion-sensitive surveillance camera to begin the recording, but once he began to walk away from the dumpster, he triggered the surveillance camera, thus activating the recording.”
Further review of both the FLIR and Tavern 13 footage revealed that the subject approached the dumpster around 7:36 a.m., remained there until 7:39 a.m., and then walked away.
“It is believed that this subject remained beside the dumpster for approximately three minutes, possibly attempting to ignite it, thus committing the act of arson (MGL 266-5A) and malicious damage (MGL 266-127),” Det. Ramos said. “This subject was believed to be the only person walking away from the dumpster before the Leominster Fire Department arrived to extinguish the fire; if anyone else were behind Tavern 13 besides this subject, the motion-activated camera would have been triggered, and they would have been recorded as well.”
Det. Ramos also shared both the FLIR and Tavern 13 footage with Officer Carlos Cintron, who is assigned to the Leominster Police Department’s outreach program for those experiencing homelessness and/or living with substance use disorder(s).
“This investigation is ongoing,” Det. Ramos said. “I will attempt to locate Mr. William Ryan Couture to determine his possible involvement in this fire.”
Det. Ramos resumed his investigation three days later, on Dec. 23. On this day, he asked employees of the Wyman’s Liquors on Pleasant Street if they had any external surveillance footage of the rear of the building and the red dumpster for Tuesday, Dec. 19 for the time frame of 7:30 a.m. – 8:15 a.m.
Det. Ramos was subsequently contacted by Shawn Wyman who informed him that the store’s surveillance footage captured a man crossing the pedestrian bridge behind the store, walk over to the red dumpster, stop at it, and “appear to be looking into the dumpster doing something.”
Wyman told the detective that a short time after the man walked away, smoke and flames emerged from the dumpster.
“I then responded to Wyman’s where I then did view the video footage myself,” Det. Ramos said. “I then did observe the same person who I believe to be William Ryan Couture walk over to the dumpster and begin doing something. No other subjects were observed in the area near Mr. William Ryan Couture or the dumpster for the exception of a jogger who ran down the walkway and stopped on the footbridge and peered into the brook and then continued to jog away from the dumpster. Mr. William Ryan Couture was the only person who was at the dumpster before it ignited into flames.”
Detective Ramos said he would try to locate Couture to further the investigation. However, if Couture couldn’t be found, he planned to apply for an arrest warrant on the following charges:
- 1 count Burn Personality (MGL 266 Sec 5A)
- 1 count Malicious Damage (MGL 266-127) [This charge was ultimately changed to one count of Vandalize Property (MGL 266 Sec. 126A)]
Couture was arrested on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. He was arraigned the day he was arrested in Leominster District Court, after which he was released on $1,000 bail under the condition that he stay away from Tavern 13.
Couture is scheduled to appear in court again on Feb. 5, 2024, for a pretrial conference.
Disclaimer: If you are wondering why the incident in this story was from December, that’s because I had to file FOIA request(s) to get the documents for the incident. FOIAs are time consuming.
