Who was C.J. Jones? Troubled teen had troubling fascination with fire, school officials say

BY James Gordon Meek, Christina Boyle, Joe Jackson, Kevin Deutsch and Jonathan Lemire

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Friday, July 23rd 2010, 4:00 AM

The signs were there.

The 14-year-old suspected of wiping out his family in a murder-suicide had a troubling fascination with fire.

Staffers at Intermediate School 72 on Staten Island recommended C.J. Jones get psychiatric counseling after he set several small fires there, sources said.

It was unknown if his mother, Leisha Jones, enrolled him, but it is clear that while he sometimes seemed like a happy, doting older brother, C.J. was grappling with inner demons.

"I can't believe what they're telling me. He's no killer," C.J.'s grandmother, Marcia Anderson, 50, of Washington, D.C., told the Daily News, adding that the D.C. cops informed her of the murder-suicide.

As of Thursday night, she hadn't been able to reach NYPD detectives to get more information.

C.J., his mom and siblings visited Anderson recently and she insisted he exhibited no signs of being troubled.

"He was a nice boy," she said. "He kept touching my face, hugging me, saying, 'Grandma, you okay?'"

C.J. had recently been kicked out of school and was playing with fire just hours before the explosion of violence that left five people dead.

"This is a Columbine level of rage directed at his family," said Dr. Alan Hilfer, director of clinical psychology at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn.

"He would have had to be a very, very disturbed angry kid. Kids act out in a variety of ways but, it's rare that they act out this violently toward their whole family."

Family friend Jacqueline Brooks said C.J.'s mom had been "stressing out because of his problems," and neighbor Raquel Fagone, 43, said she caught the boy playing with matches.

"A couple of months ago I saw him playing with matches, lighting paper on fire," Fagone said. "I came outside and told him to not do that and he said 'okay.'"

From: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/07/23/2010-07-23_troubled_teen_had_love_of_fire_psych_issues__school_officials.html