A 20-year-old Rockville man is behind bars after police say he set fire to a bathroom trash can inside a busy Burger King and then torched the town's historic visitor center, all because he was bored. Ezekiel Kyler Tapp was taken into custody Monday and now faces two counts of arson tied to the back-to-back blazes in downtown Rockville.
Rockville Police Department officers first responded to the Burger King after a fire was reported inside the restaurant, according to police statements reported by MyWabashValley.com. Investigators determined the fire had been intentionally set in a bathroom trash can, and it happened while patrons and staff were still in the restaurant. Surveillance footage reportedly showed Tapp entering and exiting the restroom around the time the fire broke out.
Authorities were then alerted to another fire at the Rockville Visitor Center, and police identified Tapp as the suspect in that blaze as well, per the same account. Officers took him into custody the same day, and he admitted to intentionally starting both fires, according to a police news release cited in the report. Tapp reportedly told police he set the fires simply out of boredom. He is currently held in the Parke County Jail.
A Historic Depot Among the Targets
The visitor center Tapp allegedly targeted is housed in the restored 1883 Vandalia Railroad Depot at 401 East Ohio Street, according to See Indiana. The depot serves as the central administrative hub for regional visitors, making it more than just another building in a small town of roughly 60 miles west of Indianapolis. Rockville is the county seat and governmental hub of Parke County, according to My Indiana Home.
The timing carries added weight for the community. Parke County bills itself as the Covered Bridge Capital of the World, home to 31 historic covered bridges and an annual 10-day Covered Bridge Festival headquartered in Rockville that draws over one million visitors every October, per the same outlet. A fire at the county's main visitor hub weeks before that tourist rush lands squarely in the town's civic and economic center.
What Tapp Could Face Under Indiana Law
Under Indiana Code § 35-43-1-1, arson committed under circumstances that endanger human life is classified as a Level 4 felony, carrying a statutory prison range of two to 12 years and fines up to $10,000 per count, according to FindLaw. Level 4 felonies in Indiana carry an advisory sentence of six years per count. Setting a fire inside an occupied business where patrons or employees are present elevates the offense to a life-safety crime, which is why Indiana law allows prosecutors to file separate felony counts for distinct incidents, as explained by the Indianapolis Criminal Defense Lawyer blog.
It remains unclear whether the Parke County Prosecutor has filed formal charging documents, what the total monetary damage was at either site, or whether Tapp has secured legal representation.
Boredom as a Recognized Motive
Fire investigators have long documented cases where offenders ignite accessible public targets like trash cans purely for excitement rather than money or revenge, according to research published by Firehouse Magazine. That pattern has surfaced elsewhere recently: Hoodline previously reported on a Houston man who confessed to setting fires outside shopping centers because he was bored, igniting between 20 and 30 blazes at retail plazas and storefronts.
Nationally, arson remains a serious public safety issue. The National Fire Protection Association reports that approximately 261,000 fires are intentionally set across the United States each year, making it a leading cause of commercial property damage. Rockville has faced other recent scrutiny of local safety concerns, including Hoodline's coverage of a fatal shooting at Milligan Park in nearby Crawfordsville that killed 31-year-old Rockville resident Kaleb Isabell earlier this year.
