ANSONIA – Surveillance footage helped police identify two suspects charged in connection to a fire at Gatison Park, according to an arrest warrant.
Jayvon Johnson and Jose Bordoy, both 19-year-old Ansonia residents, were arrested last week and charged with reckless burning, first-degree criminal mischief and second-degree reckless endangerment in connection to the blaze. They were also charged with conspiracy to commit each of those offenses.
An arrest warrant for Bordoy, on file at Superior Court in Derby and authored by Ansonia Detective Shawn Mendenhall, helps show how police identified the two as suspects.
According to the warrant, police and firefighters were called to Gatison Park between Third and Fourth streets at about 3:29 a.m. Oct. 3 for a report of a possible fire outside.
Responders found both the playground itself and surrounding rubber matting were engulfed in flames.
“The play ground was a complete loss due to damage and exceeded a cost of over $1,500,” the warrant says.
The playground cost about $109,800 to install in 2025, according to an invoice reviewed by police.
Responding officers found a pile of ice dumped in the grass, indicating someone had been there recently. The fire marshal later recovered a discarded Bic lighter near the playground gate, according to the warrant.
While police were on scene, they received reports from other officers that they had seen two people walking near North Main and Liberty streets. Police did not stop the people at the time.
Repeated Fires Seen In Surveillance Footage
Over the next two days, officers canvassed the neighborhood and were able to retrieve surveillance footage from homes and businesses in the area. The footage allegedly showed two people in the area of Gatison Park for about an hour leading up to the fire.
According to a police description of the footage, it shows two people walking toward the playground around 1:48 a.m. Then, a flicker of light appears at 2:07 a.m. before going back out at 2:09 a.m.
More lights are seen flickering, growing into flames, and extinguishing between 2:12 a.m. and 2:57 a.m. The same two people are seen walking around the park and nearby areas throughout that time.
At 3:18 a.m., another fire is seen, and the two people are allegedly seen walking from the flame and toward Fourth Street. The footage then shows them walking to the nearby shopping plaza, back to Gatison Park, and away again toward Liberty Street by 3:28 a.m, the warrant says.
The footage then allegedly shows them walking up North Main Street, over to State Street, and up the hill.
The footage was distributed across the Ansonia Police Department and nearby departments, the warrant says. A school resource officer who viewed the footage then identified one of the people shown as Johnson, an Ansonia High School student who graduated in 2025. Neither the officer nor school administrators were able to identify Bordoy from the footage, according to the warrant.
After reviewing the footage, police obtained a search warrant Oct. 5 for Johnson’s home on Fourth Street. Police allegedly found both Johnson and Bordoy inside the home. Police seized clothes found in the home which allegedly matched the clothes Johnson was seen wearing in the surveillance footage.
Two officers interviewed Johnson while the search warrant was being carried out. During the interview, Johnson allegedly told police that he and Bordoy had been in Gatison Park setting pinecones on fire in a pile. He allegedly said the first fires burned out into ash, and that he and Bordoy initially walked away from the last fire believing that it would burn itself out, too.
However, Johnson allegedly said that he and Bordoy returned and saw the fire had grown.
“He could not see the flames but saw the glow and smoke coming from the playground which made him realize the fire had become much larger,” the warrant describes Johnson as saying.
Johnson said he and Bordoy walked away again because “he did not want anything to do with it,” according to the warrant.
Bordoy, who had been detained in a patrol vehicle, declined to be interviewed and was released at the time, the warrant says.
Police then obtained a search warrant for Bordoy’s home on Judson Place, where they allegedly found clothes, including black Crocs, that were seen in the surveillance video. Officers obtained an arrest warrant for Bordoy following that search.
Bordoy made an initial court appearance on Oct. 8, according to court documents, and has a court date scheduled for Nov. 3 at Superior Court in Derby. He is represented by a public defender, according to the state judicial website.
Johnson’s first court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 21, according to an arrest log and a police press release. His case does not yet appear on the state judicial website and court staff said they do not yet have documents concerning his arrest. Cases often do not show up on the judicial website until a person has made their first court appearance.