A 23-year-old man charged with terrorism after allegedly plowing an SUV through Woodfield Mall now faces unrelated charges of lighting a truck on fire more than a week earlier in Palatine.
Javier Garcia pleaded not guilty Monday to a felony count each of arson and criminal damage to property, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
The charges relate to a Sept. 8 truck fire in the parking lot of a Palatine apartment complex, Palatine Cmdr. Dave Weeks said in an email.
Firefighters responded to a truck fire about 1:55 p.m. at 1 Renaissance Pl. and found a T-shirt soaked in gasoline was stuffed into the truck’s gas tank, Weeks said. Police located surveillance video of a man buying the lighter fluid found at the scene.
Nearly two weeks later on Sept. 20, Garcia allegedly crashed an SUV through a door of Schaumburg’s Woodfield Mall and struck several columns, but didn’t strike anyone, prosecutors said. Garcia was detained by two off-duty officers and later charged with terrorism.
After that high-profile case, Palatine police identified Garcia as the same man in the arson incident and charged him, Weeks said.
During a hearing for the state terrorism charges, Garcia’s attorney noted that Garcia was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for a week after being arrested at the mall, adding that his client takes psychiatric medications and is being treated for bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia.
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He is due in court again Jan. 27.