Two teenagers held as suspects in five-alarm mall fire

Neighbors and business owners in the 1940s-era Old Hickory Village area want prosecutors to charge the 15- and 17-year-old boys as adults and seek severe punishment.

Mall property owner Jim Crossman believes the teens should be tried as adults because the fire ruined so many lives. At least 11 storefronts were destroyed in the blaze Sunday night, and many owners did not have insurance.

Fire officials estimated the damage at $1.4 million.

“They killed Old Hickory’s community place,” Crossman said. “And it just seems worse — I don’t know — it seems worse than murder to me.”

Prosecutors have not determined if they will try to have the case transferred to adult criminal court, said Melinda Rigsby, team leader for the juvenile division of the Davidson County district attorney general’s office.

The office will ask a juvenile court judge Friday to keep the teens in custody, Rigsby said. A decision whether to transfer the case from the juvenile system also could be made Friday, she said.

State laws that keep juvenile records confidential when crimes are considered less serious than robbery, rape or murder prevent officials from naming the teens. Fire officials said the 17-year-old lives in Sumner County but visits his mother in Old Hickory on weekends, while the 15-year-old lives in Madison and was visiting the other teen.

The two boys confessed to the mall fire but denied being involved in a rash of suspicious fires occurring in the area since last summer, officials said.