Farmington Man Accused of Setting Fire to DG With People Inside

A Farmington man is under arrest, facing multiple charges are after allegedly setting fire to a retail store while customers and employees were inside at the time.

New York State Police say 31-year-old Ariel N. Ferrer was arrested on Monday, January 31, 2022 after they say their "investigation determined Ferrer intentionally set a fire at the Dollar General store" located at 5991 State Route 96 in the Ontario County town of Farmington on January 20th.

State Police say that they were called initially because of the fire and did not know at the time that the fire was intentionally set.  They say that Ferrer was identified as a person of interest as an arson suspect as soon as firefighters arrived and started putting out the fire.  According to the NYSP "Ferrer made a number of suspicious acts around the time the fire was first discovered. This led to (investigators) seizing important physical evidence."

During the investigation troopers, the Director of Ontario County Emergency Services, and Dollar General employees were able to recover digital surveillance camera footage.  Based on their review of the footage law enforcement personnel determined that the fire was an act of arson.

Ferrer now faces the following charges:

• Arson in the 2nd Degree (Class B Felony)
• Resisting Arrest (Class A misdemeanor)

Ferrer was processed at the State Police barracks in Canandaigua and sent to the Ontario County awaiting a future court appearance to answer the charges.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE:   This post is for informational purposes and is based largely on information received from the New York State Police.  All arrested persons are innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.  At the time of this posting no additional information is available.]