Warrant: Man vandalized, tried to set fire to hospital

STAMFORD — A Ridgefield man armed with a baseball bat tried to set fire to a building on the Silver Hill Hospital campus in New Canaan, according to an arrest warrant.

Darren Yu Huang, 23, was arrested Wednesday on charges of criminal attempt at first-degree arson, first-degree criminal mischief, second-degree criminal trespass and illegal possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle in connection to an incident that occurred at Silver Hill Hospital on Feb. 20.

Huang was arraigned Wednesday afternoon at the state Superior Court in Stamford, where a judge upheld a court-set bond of $250,000 on him.

New Canaan police responded to reports of “an individual with a baseball bat breaking windows and pouring gasoline around one of the buildings” at Silver Hill Hospital around 6 p.m. Feb. 20, officer Kelly Coughlin wrote in the arrest warrant.

Coughlin wrote that Huang, a former patient, was seen on surveillance footage approaching the Silver Hills’ admissions building with a baseball and gasoline container in his hand.

The video allegedly shows Huang smashing multiple windows within view of employees, then pouring gasoline around the building “on concrete, plants, ground and wooden benches,” Coughlin wrote.

“He was stopped before he was able to start the fire,” said Supervisory State’s Attorney Michelle Manning during Huang’s arraignment Wednesday afternoon.

Huang later left the scene in the Mercedes that police later pulled him over in, according to the warrant.

Inside the car, police found three baseball bats, two five-gallon containers and three two-gallon containers of gas, and one two-and-a-half-gallon container filled with “diesel exhaust fluid,” the warrant said.

Attorney Andrew Gould, who represents Huang, said during Wednesday’s hearing that his client’s actions stemmed from “emerging issues with his mental health.”

“His family is very much committed to making sure he gets the help he needs with his mental health issues,” Gould told Judge Kevin Randolph during an argument for a lower bond.

Huang’s case was transferred to the StamfordNorwalk’s Part A docket, where the district’s most serious cases are heard.

He is next scheduled to appear in court on April 12.