On June 27, 2023, just before 10:00 p.m., Mesa Police Officers responded to reports of a fire inside a Target store located at 1230 S. Longmore. Officers ran inside the store with a fire extinguisher, yelling to make sure no one else was inside, but soon realized the store had filled with too much smoke and had to exit.
Mesa Fire Department arrived and extinguished the fire. In a joint investigation with Mesa Fire, officers learned that two separate fires were started inside the store: one in the baby diaper aisle and the other, a piece of clothing on the floor.
Target reported the amount of damage caused by the fire was upwards of $5,000,000 as toxic smoke had contacted all the merchandise inside the store in addition to fire suppression sprinklers flooding the area.
Officers gathered video surveillance from Target and watched as an adult man walked through the store, placing items into a shopping cart. This man picks up a shirt resembling the one that was set on fire. He hastily moves from the area, toward electronics as smoke is starting to invade the store. The man watches the fire grow and then attempts to break into a case of cell phones with a hammer but is unsuccessful.
The man is one of the last to leave the store and when he does, he takes several items of stolen merchandise with him and flees in a black sedan.
Officers obtained a license plate from surveillance video and eventually identified a suspect, 31-year-old Daniel Hull. As luck would have it, officers wouldn’t have to look far to find Hull, he was sitting in Mesa Police custody from an unrelated arrest earlier in the day.
Hull was interviewed by officers and admitted to starting the fires.
Daniel Hull was booked into jail for the following charges related to this case: