Firefighters finish extinguishing the fire around Portland City Councilor Candace Avalos' vehicle at her home in the Mill Park neighborhood of Portland, Ore., on Oct. 26, 2025.
Courtesy of Dennis Weis via Portland Fire & Rescue
Portland police have arrested a man suspected of starting a fire near Portland City Councilor Candace Avalos’ house on Oct. 26.
Police arrested 51-year-old Vashon Locust on Tuesday morning on reckless burning and criminal mischief charges. According to the Portland Police Bureau, Locust allegedly plugged a heater into an electrical outlet that was inside a shed adjacent to Avalos’ home.
“When the outlet didn’t work, Locust lit a small fire, which ultimately spread,” according to PPB.
Locust was booked in the Multnomah County Jail around 9 a.m.
The arrest comes after Avalos expressed frustration with the investigation into the fire that burned her car and part of her house in Portland’s Mill Park neighborhood.
Avalos thanked police and fire officials in a statement Tuesday. She said that she didn’t want to comment on Locust, but that she does “hope to connect with him when the time is right.”
Locust has a criminal record spanning decades in Multnomah County. He has no recorded history of reckless burning or arson. Recent records show he has been staying at homeless shelters or has a home address listed as “no address.”
“This was an act that caused real harm and disruption to my life and others, and it’s important that we find a path forward that centers both healing and responsibility,” Avalos continued. “But it’s also a reminder that far too many of our neighbors are living in crisis — people navigating untreated mental illness, addiction, and poverty in a system that’s failed to catch them before they fall."
At an afternoon press conference, which was aired live by KOIN-TV, Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez said according to preliminary interviews with Locust, it appears he lit the fire as a way to stay warm.
“There was a fire that got out of control,” Vasquez said. “There was no political motivation. There was nothing that indicates he had any knowledge of who lived in the area.”
Avalos previously raised concerns that police officials were “jumping to conclusions” in the fire investigation, after PPB said they didn’t believe the fire was set to target her. Avalos had pointed to recent violence against political figures across the country — and an email her office had received days before the fire, which threatened to burn down her house.
Locust did not appear to send this email. A public records search by OPB found the sender likely lives in Maryland.
“We take any act of violence very seriously, and certainly the indications of this potentially being political violence was definitely top of mind for us,” said Portland Police Chief Bob Day at the press conference. “We recognize the visibility of the role of this councilor in the city of Portland and certainly considered that along with all the other possibilities.”
