Accused Arsonist Said He Set Fire To Mattress Because He Wanted To Die: Prosecutor

CHICAGO—A former tenant of a Rogers Park apartment building where Chicago Firefighter Michael “Mickey” Altman lost his life was ordered jailed following a pretrial detention hearing Monday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse. Sheaves Slate, 27, appeared before Judge Luciano Panici Jr. on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated arson and residential arson.

During his hearing Monday afternoon, the Cook County assistant state's attorney said Slate visited the three-story, seven-unit building at 1757 W. North Shore Ave., in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the city’s North Side, according to witnesses. Slate was a friend of a third-floor tenant of the building where he lived nine months ago. Prosecutors said Slate would still come around to visit his former roommate.

Two weeks before the fire, on March 2, the prosecutor said a tenant who lived in the basement unit complained to the property manager that Slate was living in the basement area. The property manager confronted Slate in the laundry room and told him he was trespassing and he had to leave immediately, according to the criminal complaint.

The day before the deadly fire, the prosecutor said two witnesses now living with Slate’s former roommate told investigators they separately saw Slate entering the laundry room. Later in the evening, around 10:30 p.m., Slate was captured on the Ring camera of two neighbors who lived in the second-floor unit carrying bags to his former third-floor apartment, prosecutors said.

Slate knocked on the door of the apartment where he used to live and demanded to speak to his former roommate, according to the criminal complaint. Prosecutors said the new roommates told Slate he could not speak to his friend, angering Slate.

Another tenant on the second floor overheard the argument and told police that Slate threatened the roommates, vowing, “they were going to pay,” the prosecutor said. One of the new roommates called 911 because Slate was yelling so loudly, but the prosecutor said the roommate called back and cancelled the call, believing Slate had left the building.

Around 11 p.m., the prosecutor said the Ring camera from the second-floor apartment again captured Slate walking back up the stairs to his old apartment and then down once more at 12:25 a.m. on what was then March 16. The roommates claim they each saw Slate lying down sleeping in front of their third-floor apartment. When one of the roommates left for work at 4 a.m., the prosecutor said he made Slate leave. Slate was again captured on the second-floor Ring camera leaving the building through the front door.

A short time after leaving the building, the prosecutor said Slate returned, entering the building through a broken basement window and going into the maintenance/boiler room where he had been illegally staying. The prosecutor said Slate remained there for several hours.

Feeling depressed and suicidal after being spurned by his friends, the prosecutor said Slate set fire to a corner of the mattress leaned up against a wall in the room and then watched as it went up in flames.

When Slate realized the fire was growing out of control, the prosecutor said he placed a door in front of the room to hide the smoke and fire. Slate is said to have left the building without calling 911 and never alerting the building’s other tenants, who would eventually be displaced by the fire.

After Slate left the burning building, the prosecutor said surveillance video captured Slate walking eastbound in the alley between North Shore and Wallen at 11:20 a.m. before he was captured by a police POD camera walking to the bus stop on Clark Street.

When one of the tenants in the second-floor unit left for work just before 10:30 a.m., the Ring camera did not indicate any smoke in the hallway; however, when the other person residing in the second-floor apartment left the unit at 11:23 a.m., the Ring camera clearly showed smoke in the hallway.

A few minutes later, the tenant living in the basement unit heard the smoke alarm go off and smelled smoke. The Chicago Fire Department rushed to the North Shore building after receiving numerous 911 calls.

Altman, assigned to Truck 47 out of Edgewater, was one of the firefighters who arrived on the scene at 11:30 a.m. At the same time 911 calls were coming in, the prosecutor said Slate was captured on video boarding the ##22 Clark Street CTA bus. Altman and the other firefighters entered the burning building.

The prosecutor said Altman was in full protective gear to protect himself from heat and fire. He was standing on the first floor of the building when the floor collapsed and fell into the fire, engulfing him in flames. Altman’s fellow firefighters quickly pulled him out of the flames, and he was rushed to Stroger Hospital, suffering burns over 90 percent of his body. He died of his injuries the next day.

Meanwhile, just after 11:30 a.m., while the fire was still burning blocks away, the prosecutor said more video footage captured Slate exiting the Clark Street bus and hopping on a Red Line CTA train at the Howard Street CTA station.

Slate was caught on surveillance video traveling to the Harold Washington Library after he got off the train. The prosecutor said Slate dyed his hair from orange to brown and changed his clothes. The next day, Slate reportedly checked himself into a hospital for suicidal ideations. The prosecutor said Slate was later arrested at the hospital.

ATF investigators concluded that the fire was started by human means in the corner of the maintenance building, the prosecutor said. Witnesses, including the former roommate, property manager and second-floor resident, positively identified Slate from a photo array, the prosecutor said.

Slate later made admissions to previously living in tents that burned down due to what he claimed were his accidental actions, prosecutors said. The first tent burned down in August or September in Osterman Park, and the second tent in December near Buena Park.

Initially, the prosecutor said Slate denied starting the fire on North Shore Avenue, but eventually admitted to entering the building through the broken basement window. Slate told police he went to the maintenance/boiler room, where he remained until he used his lighter to set the mattress on fire because he wanted to die, the prosecutor said. He allegedly admitted to not being able to put the fire out and that he placed the door in front of the room when he left and saw smoke on his way out.

Since July 24, 2025, the prosecutor told the judge that Slate has been arrested four times, when he was arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine and retail theft, but skipped his first two court hearings.

Slate resurfaced in September 2025 when officials say he returned to the scene of his earlier retail theft. He was arrested on the new charge and the outstanding warrant when store employees recognized him and called police. The July charges were ultimately dropped.

He pleaded guilty to the September retail theft charge on Oct. 30, 2025, after failing to yet appear in court on that charge, where he was sentenced to one year of probation. While on that probation, the prosecutor said Slate was picked up on Jan. 16 for felony meth and retail theft charges. An arrest warrant was issued when he allegedly failed to appear in court, which was in effect the day of last week’s arson fire.

Slate was ordered detained in Cook County Jail. His next hearing is April 8 at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.