NJ nurse warned ‘everyone is going to die today’ before prosecutors say he set fires

🔥Prosecutors say a Gloucester Township nurse set a fire at his apartment complex

🔥Authorities say he then drove to his workplace in Winslow Township with a gas can

🔥Taquan N. Ayers warned a co-worker that "everyone is going to die today"

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP — A nurse faces two sets of charges in separate fires set on Thursday, including his own workplace where nearly 100 workers and patients were present.

The first fire was at Taquan N. Ayers' apartment at the Cherrywood Apartments on Little Gloucester Road in Gloucester Township around 11:50 a.m. Thursday morning, according to Camden County Prosecutor Grace C. MacAulay. It was put out before it could spread to other units but caused significant damage that made it uninhabitable, according to police. Security video captured the 25-year-old with a gas can just before the fire started.

Another fire was reported just after noon, about 15 minutes away at Oaks Integrated Care on Berlin-Cross Keys Road in Winslow Township. A car that was later found to be Ayers' parked next to the air conditioning unit was on fire outside. Police say Ayers told one co-worker to get everyone to the front of the building and told a second, "everyone is going to die today."

He walked inside the building with a gas can, doused the lobby in gasoline and unsuccessfully tried to set it on fire using a Clorox wipe sprayed with Lysol, according to police. An estimated 90 people were in the building at the time, police said.

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Attempted murder, kidnapping and arson charges

Ayers also made threatening comments towards his co-workers and locked one, a woman, in his office for 5-10 minutes and closed the blinds. He then went outside, where he was arrested.

MacAulay said he faces two sets of charges. For the apartment fire he was charged with one count each of second-degree aggravated arson and second-degree causing or risking widespread injury or damage.

He was also charged with two counts of third-degree arson and one count each of 1st degree attempted murder, 1st degree kidnapping, 2nd degree attempted aggravated arson, and 3rd degree terroristic threats.

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