Several members of the Edmonton Police Service tactical unit testified at the trial of a man accused of setting his apartment building on fire, resulting in the death of one of his neighbours. Jason Zabos had been locked in an hours-long standoff with police in the early morning hours of Jan. 26, 2024 when the fire broke out in his suite around 12:45 a.m. Seven of his neighbours, including a toddler, were taken to hospital. The body of Ricardo Olivares was found in the charred remains of his suite on April 22, 2024, after he was reported missing by family. The incident began around 1 p.m. on Jan. 25 after a bailiff and supervisor of the apartment building at 10745 79 Ave. NW attempted to serve Zabos with an eviction notice. On Friday one of the tactical officers who was involved in the attempt to arrest Zabos on Jan. 26 told court he was standing outside the building when he saw Zabos light what looked like a Molotov cocktail and throw it on the floor of the bedroom. He said officers attempted to put out the resulting fire, but it spread quickly and thick smoke filled the building. He said that Zabos was removed by officers and arrested. A second member of the tactical team testified that the team had been warned that Zabos had threatened to burn down the apartment before they arrived. He told court he had breached the bedroom window of Zabos’ ground floor suite and saw Zabos give him the middle finger with both hands. He testified that Zabos disappeared from view after that, but shortly afterward he saw an orange glow in the suite. He said the fire spread quickly, and couldn’t hear fire alarms, so he started screaming that there was a fire and trying to get the other tenants to leave the building. A tenant on a second-floor balcony suggested that he wasn’t able to leave the building by the stairwell because of the smoke, the officer told the court. A third member of the tactical team, a 19-year veteran of the Edmonton Police Service, said he had never seen a fire spread as fast as one in Zabos’ suite, noting that shortly after the fire broke out there was only a foot of clearance in the stairwell between the ground and the smoke. He also testified that approximately $119,000 worth of police tools were lost in the fire, including a drone robot, breaching tool, ballistic shield, camera system, gas masks, and a ballistic helmet. All the officers noted that they had been briefed that Zabos was suffering from mental health issues when they arrived at the call. The trial continues next week. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson
