This man shot fireworks at police, ignited his own house — and killed a cat

Police say a 45-year-old man fired “large yield” fireworks at Larimer County Sheriff’s deputies on Monday when they responded to his burglar alarm sounding.

The exchange led to a blaze that killed a cat and charges of arson, cruelty to animals, reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and violating a previous bond release for Leonard Francis Simonini, the suspect.

There’s a lot to unpack there, as the deputies that had to write the police report no doubt found out.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to a burglary call around 8:40 p.m. Monday inside a home located in a mobile home park near Loveland, Colo. They found the front door open and a man who would not identify himself crouching down in the back room of the unit.

When he refused to leave the home, the deputies entered, and that’s when the fireworks started. Literally.

According to a news release from the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, the man began yelling at the deputies, but never identified himself or why he was in the house. He fired several fireworks at the deputies, forcing them to leave the home.

The man, later identified as Simonini, then came to the front door wielding a small gas torch and continued to light fireworks. When he again refused to surrender, the deputies released a police dog who chased the man into the home, which was filling with smoke at this point. The dog “apprehended” Simonini with its teeth, the release said.

Simonini was treated for smoke inhalation and “injuries sustained during the K9 apprehension” at a local hospital before being arrested and booked into the Larimer County Jail. A cat was also killed in the blaze.

The deputies evacuated neighboring homes during the incident as well. It was not clear why the burglar alarm sounded or why Simonini did not identify himself as a resident of the home when contacted first by police.

This story was originally published September 27, 2017 at 10:11 AM with the headline "This man shot fireworks at police, ignited his own house — and killed a cat."