Police say suspect in her husband's murder set herself or home on fire

Debra Holcomb captured video when she observed men surrounding the home on Valley Wind Drive near Brock Park in northeast Houston at around 10 a.m. Friday.

"Everywhere I go, I pull my phone out because you just can't explain everything," said Holcomb. 

This one is tough to explain fully.

Police attempted to arrest Janet Alexander on Friday on a murder charge in the 2018 stabbing death of her husband Lionel. The situation got out of hand quickly.

It is not clear if she tried to set her house on fire or set herself on fire. Either way, soon she and her home were in flames. Then it got worse when something exploded.

"I heard a boom and we ran out and saw the fire trucks and I looked up in the sky and saw a lot of black smoke," said neighbor Charles Williams. 

Firefighters were able to get the upper hand pretty quickly and soon, arson investigators were on hand. But why were police trying to arrest a 69-year-old woman for murder?            

It was April 27, 2018, almost one year ago, when police arrived at the very same house. A woman had stabbed her husband to death. Investigators said the wife had defensive wounds. She told them that she had been arguing with her husband and it had escalated. Her name? Janet Alexander. The case went to a grand jury, resulting in the murder charge. Janet is at a hospital as a result of her burns and in Houston police custody.