![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/VAZQUEZ-REYES-JOSUE.jpg\")
The State Attorney\u2019s Office on Monday said there isn\u2019t enough evidence to prove Josue Vazquez Reyes set the fire earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he isn\u2019t off the hook. He\u2019s also accused of stealing from the store where he worked as a manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Family Dollar has not said whether it plans to rebuild the store, and if it does, the company will have to start from scratch. Nothing remains of the store and the lot where it once stood is empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the early morning hours of Feb. 26, it was all hands on deck for firefighters as fire whipped through the store at 3519 Lee Blvd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fire marshal, Lee County Arson Task Force, Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office, and Bureau of Fire, Arson and Explosive Investigations all came to the same conclusion: The fire was the result of arson, and the\u00a0former store manager was arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, more than three months later, the State Attorney\u2019s Office decided not to file arson charges against Reyes, saying they didn\u2019t have enough evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They will, however, go forward with grand theft charges, saying Reyes, 24, stole from the store just a few weeks before the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Family Dollar never got back to us, so we don\u2019t know what its future plans are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neighbors hope the company rebuilds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A man accused of burning down a Family Dollar store in Lehigh Acres won\u2019t face any charges for it. The State Attorney\u2019s Office on Monday said there isn\u2019t enough evidence… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":40155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[370],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49113,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49112\/revisions\/49113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/family-dollar-logo_final-1024x145.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n