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Pottsville man under arrest: Police say drug use lead to arson and machete attack

By Lauren Ryder and Suzanne Goldklang, WNEP POTTSVILLE–A teenager is safe after a statewide amber alert. The police said her boyfriend was taken into cust...
Cassidy-Bowers_Stephen-Campion

By Lauren Ryder and Suzanne Goldklang, WNEP

POTTSVILLE–A teenager is safe after a statewide amber alert.

The police said her boyfriend was taken into custody on Saturday accused of kidnapping, arson and assault.

Twenty-year-old Steven Campion is in custody in Schuylkill County. He is facing charges for arson and assault after he allegedly used a machete to attacked a woman in a basement, then set the house on fire.

It all started around 6 A.M. at a house on Howard Avenue. Witnesses said a bleeding woman walked up the stairs and said she had been attacked and the basement was on fire.

Steven Campion was taken into custody when police found him walking on the Burma Road near St. Clair after a manhunt in and around Pottsville involving several agencies.

Police said the house where it all went down belonged to his relatives. Witnesses inside the house said around 6 A.M. a bleeding woman walked up the stairs of the house and said she had been attacked and the house had been set on fire.

She was taken to a hospital in the Lehigh Valley where she is stable.

Firefighters got to the scene in time to contain the fire to the lower level of the house, but windows were broken on the upper floors.

Neighbors were frightened. We spoke to one woman who said she heard the siren and started praying.

For several hours Saturday afternoon, there was an Amber alert for Campion’s girlfriend Cassidy Bowers, who came home later in the day.

WNEP Newswatch 16 spoke with her mom Kim, who was very frightened for her safety after seeing the broken glass and blood on the sidewalk in front of the house.

Source: WNEP

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