CHICAGO – Prosecutors have charged a woman with setting fire to merchandise at a downtown Target store. Judge Susana Ortiz ordered the detention of 39-year-old Brittny Brown on one count of arson.
Officials said the video showed Brown entering the store at 1 South State on Nov. 23 around 6 p.m. and going to the second floor. She then set fire to “multiple items displayed for sale,” according to a Chicago police report. According to a criminal complaint, the items included racks, bedding, bath items, “perishables” and dog treats.
Loss prevention officers extinguished the fire and arrested Brown, according to a CPD report. There were no injuries. Officials did not provide a motive for the incident.
The same store suffered an arson attack in September 2023, which prosecutors now believe was intended as a distraction for a robbery.
Ronald Langley, 26, was given a 10-year prison sentence this summer for setting the fire. Officials said he entered the store, went to the second floor, grabbed a can of WD-40 and used it to set fire to a blanket on a display shelf.
Although no injuries were reported, officials estimated damage to the store exceeded $100,000. Police arrested Langley about two weeks after the fire at another Target store when a loss prevention officer recognized him.
Not long after Langley pleaded guilty, prosecutors charged a second man with robbery and arson, saying the fire was intended as a distraction while the second man stole cellphones from Target’s electronics department.
While customers and Target employees were distracted by the fire or evacuating the building, 37-year-old Kenneth Hasley was hidden near the elevators, officials said. When the coast was clear, Hasley reportedly stepped out of hiding and used a crowbar to break a display case in the electronics department. He grabbed $2,017 worth of phones and walked to the door, prosecutors said in an arrest warrant.
Even as the fire raged elsewhere in the store, a Target security guard tried to prevent Hasley from leaving with the merchandise. Prosecutors said Hasley Pepper sprayed the security guard and fled.
In a separate case, a grand jury indicted Halsey on multiple counts of arson and criminal damage in connection with a fire that was set on November 22, 2022, in a guest room at the Radisson Hotel Schaumburg, 1550 North Roselle. No specific details about the suburban incident were immediately available.
