Arson attempt at Walhalla

A 24-year old Westminster man was jailed at Walhalla over the weekend after authorities investigated an attempt to set fire to a pickup truck. Charges by the city police and the Oconee Sheriff’s Department against Richard Shane Welch were listed as burglary second degree, malicious injury to personal property, and attempted arson. Ronald Wilbanks, Walhalla interim police chief, said Welch was placed in custody around 2-m Saturday as city fire fighters discovered gasoline poured inside a Dodge Ram truck, parked behind a Walhalla business. A sheriff’s report named Welch the suspect in an early Saturday burglary at a home on the Old Walhalla Highway, where a five-gallon gas can was stolen from a storage building. A .357-revolver was apparently dropped at the scene of that crime.