Man, 30, arraigned on arson charges

A 30-year-old Boston man was arraigned on arson charges Wednesday after he allegedly started a small fire in a Mattapan home and threw two “incendiary devices” into the kitchen, police said.

Around 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Ladarrell Murchison allegedly broke the front window of a house on West Main Street and “ignited the surrounding area of the window and curtains,” according to a police report.

Murchison was arraigned Wednesday in West Roxbury Municipal Court, where he pleaded not guilty to charges of arson of a dwelling, attempted arson of a dwelling, breaking and entering in the daytime to commit a felony, and throwing or launching explosives, records show.

Judge John E. Garland ordered Murchison held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing slated for April 22, according to legal filings.

A voicemail seeking comment was left Wednesday afternoon for Murchison’s attorney, John Himmelstein.

The police report said Murchison went to the back door, broke a window, and threw “two additional incendiary devices” in a grocery bag.

A woman, who was not identified, told police she was in the back of her home when she heard glass breaking in the front of the house.

She then saw the man “come around and break her back door, the storm door glass pane, with a shovel and throw a Stop and Shop bag containing plastic bottles into her unit,” the report said. The man “began to argue with her while holding a knife in his hand.”

The woman told police she grabbed a garden tool and told him to “stay away from her or she would stab him with it.” She said she knew the man and that they had been friends since high school.

“Lately we haven’t even really been friendly,” she said. She told officers she had “no idea why Ladarrell would do this.”

Police arrested Murchison a few minutes later at a home on Deering Road.

Murchison said he had been with his mother all day and had not left his home, the police report stated.

He said he had only texted the woman that day and “was only trying to look out for her,” the report stated.

A Boston Fire Department canine reacted positively to “the presence of an accelerant in the kitchen area” of the residence on West Main Street, the report said.