WOODLAND — A downtown Woodland motel was a hotbed of police activity Wednesday as police arrested a suspected arsonist, then later a Davis man on drug-related charges.
The fire occurred at about 12:45 a.m. in Room 128 at the Budget Inn, 1021 Main St., prompting officers to evacuate the neighboring rooms as firefighters extinguished the flames.
Statements from witnesses led police to investigate the fire as arson-related. A suspect, 48-year-old Alfonso Eugene Johnson of Woodland, was arrested at neighboring Freeman Park and booked into the Yolo County Jail.
Officers returned to the area less than nine hours later following a routine traffic stop that went awry in the motel’s parking lot.
Davis resident Raul Duran, 35, had been pulled over for a cell-phone violation, Sgt. Brett Hancock said, and was standing outside his vehicle when he ran back to the car “and swallowed an unknown quantity of methamphetamine.”
The officer called for assistance, bringing numerous police and probation officers from the nearby Woodland police station and Yolo County Courthouse. A disheveled-looking Duran was arrested and taken to Woodland Memorial Hospital for treatment of a possible drug overdose.
He was expected to be jailed on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine for sale, resisting arrest and a probation violation following his discharge, Hancock said.