George Gates, 39, was arrested Monday and charged with arson after the Houston Arson Bureau said he set a fire on the roof of the PlainsCapital Bank building in the 2900 block of Kirby on July 22.
Investigators initially suspected an electrical problem, but then surveillance footage emerged showing Gates arriving on the roof of the building just minutes before the fire and leaving just moments after.
According to a criminal complaint, Gates is also a person of interest in four other fires in the Upper Kirby area. Each time, investigators say he was seen on the roofs of buildings that had caught fire.
Detectives say they recognized Gates from his booking photo in 2021 when he set fire to his room at a southeast Houston motel.
He was ultimately convicted of that crime.
A former hotel worker told Eyewitness News that Gates never gave the staff any problems before the fire and described him as a "nice guy."
Gates has a lengthy criminal history dating back to 2011 when he was put on probation for robbery.
However, a review of past court cases revealed that charges against him are frequently dismissed or pleaded down.
Other charges ... frequently dropped or pleaded down.
In 2023, he was accused of threatening to kill a METRO bus driver and his passengers.
Prosecutors dropped the terroristic threat charge on the grounds that he'd already been convicted in another case.
In 2024, he shoplifted at CVS while armed with a knife. He's quoted as telling an employee, "CVS does not do anything, you can't touch me."
In exchange for pleading guilty to theft, prosecutors dropped the original robbery charge and Gates was sentenced to a year in jail.
But just a month later, he was back on the streets and accused of breaking into a business, trashing the place and striking the business owner.
Burglary and assault charges were dropped in exchange for pleading guilty to criminal mischief. He was sentenced to nine days in jail.
While investigators haven't established a motive for the fires, they note that PlainsCapital Bank trespassed Gates in 2025.
There was another fire on the roof of the building in 2024, although it wasn't immediately clear if investigators were eyeing Gates as a suspect in that fire.
His attorney didn't respond to a request for comment.