[Here is an updated story that appeared in the Dec. 22 newspaper, including details on where the altercation may have occurred]
Police have identified the man killed in a suspected arson in Northeast Baltimore as a 30-year-old from New Jersey, and The Sun has learned he may have been followed home from a club and beaten before being set on fire.
Firefighters were called to the home in the 1400 block of Homestead St. Saturday at about 6:15 a.m. and located a man later identified as Ellison McCall in a front room. Police did not have a date of birth for McCall, but said they believed he was 30.
Court records for a 2006 traffic ticket show a man named Ellison McCall Jr. with an Eatontown, N.J. address and 1980 birth date. On Facebook, several friends were mourning McCall and said he was from Ocean County Township, N.J. He did not have a criminal record.
One friend who did not want to be identified said McCall lived in New Jersey his entire life and did modeling. He moved to Baltimore in the past year.
Another, who also did not want to be identified, said she was told that on the night he was killed, McCall had been at a club and "put out" some people that were causing problems. She said they followed him to the Homestead St. address, kicked in the door and beat him, then set the home on fire using gasoline.
Those details could not immediately be confirmed with police, but two sources with knowledge of the investigation confirmed those details were consistent with what investigators have gathered.
Police said the incident was being investigated as an arson, making McCall the first fatal victim of an arson since 2006. Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman, said information from witnesses led police to believe the fire was intentionally set but could not elaborate.
Three days after the fire. At the property, a free-standing one-story home, plastic covered broken windows and doors. Charred items from inside the house rested on the front lawn.
Fire Marshal Raymond O'Brocki said investigators did not believe the cause of the fire was a firebombing but could not provide additional details. Chief Kevin Cartwright, a fire spokesman, said he had not been updated on the investigation.
"He was liked by everyone - a kind good person – and he will be very missed by all the lives he has touched," a friend said in an e-mail. "He was very loved by his family."
[Photo at left by me, Ellison's photo from his Facebook page]