updated 1:50 p.m.: Man arrested after suspected arson in Pittsfield Township

By Lee Higgins Crime and courts reporter

Posted on Tue, Oct 4, 2011 : 12:20 p.m.

A man was arrested Monday night after authorities said he deliberately set a fire in a bathroom at his apartment at Arbor Pointe Apartments in Pittsfield Township and then resisted arrest.

About 10:50 p.m., police and firefighters responded to a first-floor apartment at the complex, where a fire was burning in a bathroom at 2040 Arbor Circle E., officials said.

As firefighters put the fire out, officers stopped the 35-year-old man who is believed to have set the blaze. The man was riding away on a bicycle, Pittsfield Township Deputy Police Chief Gordy Schick said.

Schick said the man resisted arrest and refused to put his hands behind his back, so officers used a Taser to subdue him. As the man was being driven to the Washtenaw County Jail, he kicked out a window of a patrol vehicle, police said, causing more than $1,000 damage.

Pittsfield Township Fire Chief Sean Gleason said the investigation into the fire continues. He said the blaze caused less than $5,000 damage.

Charges are pending.