A man was arrested and charged with attempting to burn down the Mary Todd Lincoln House in Kentucky — the childhood residence of President Abraham Lincoln’s wife.
Santosh Sharma, 29, was spotted by a Lexington police officer on Thursday with a lighter in his hand and actively pouring gasoline on the rear of the historical site, located on West Main Street in downtown Lexington, according to arrest citation obtained by WDKY.
According to police, Sharma had additional gasoline inside of a bag strapped to his back.
When the officer confronted Sharma, he waived a hammer at at the cop.
The citation does not indicate any kind of physical altercation between the two, however the officer noted that the presence of the hammer put the officer in potential danger.
Sharma allegedly gained entry to the rear of the Mary Todd Lincoln House by entering through a gated, enclosed fenced-in area.
He was arrested and booked at the Fayette County Detention Center. He’s charged with menacing, second-degree criminal trespassing, and second-degree attempted arson, jail records show.
Sharma’s motivation for wanting to burn down the house is not clear.
The house, which now serves as a museum, was built between 1803 and 1806, according to the Mary Todd Lincoln House website.
Mary Todd Lincoln, who was born in 1818, and her family moved into the house in 1832. She lived there until she left in 1839 to live with her sister in Springfield, Illinois where she would meet her future husband and 16th US President Abraham Lincoln.
She brought her husband to visit her family at the Lexington home in 1847.
