Ean Bordeaux, a Little Rock police-corruption blogger (and hot dog vendor) was the victim of an arson attack this morning at his home at 1510 of Bragg street in Little Rock (just south of Macarthur park).

According to Ean, he awoke at 4:00 am to the sound of his dogs barking. Looking at his security monitors, he saw that his hot dog cart in his yard was on fire. He rushed down to put out the flames which were now lapping against his house and threatening his cart’s propane tank. Ean burned his hands putting out the fire, and immediately called the police. Fifteen minutes later, watching his video monitor while waiting for police to arrive, he saw a man approach the cart (apparently for a second time). The unidentified man then began squirting lighter fluid onto the cart. Ean ran down the stairs and confronted the man, who then ran. He noticed that the man was wearing a hat and a mask. Ean chased down and tackled him. The masked man landed face-first onto the pavement, and they both then laid there catching their breath. Ean claims that he didn’t strike the man, but since he feared the man might have a weapon, he continued to hold the suspect down until police arrived. The masked man died shortly thereafter.

The masked man turned out to be ex-LRPD police officer Todd Payne, who had been a subject of Ean’s blog investigation at Corruption Sucks. Ean claims that Todd had been harassing him for some time due to his posts and that he and Todd had worked in close contact for several years in the River Market area. (Ean’s hot dog cart was on a corner in Todd’s Rivermarket beat).”