Driver Crashes Into San Jose Post Office, Igniting Fire

A driver was arrested on Sunday for crashing a vehicle into a post office in San Jose, Calif., and setting the building ablaze, the authorities said.

Officials said the man, Richard Tillman, 44, is believed to be the youngest brother of Pat Tillman, the former professional football player turned Army Ranger who was killed in Afghanistan. Mr. Tillman was arrested on suspicion of arson, officials said. He was being held at the Santa Clara County jail.

Firefighters were called at about 3 a.m. Pacific time on Sunday to a post office in the Almaden Valley area of San Jose, where they found that a vehicle had plowed through the front of the building, the authorities said. It took them more than 90 minutes to extinguish the fire. No one was injured.

The crash is being investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and local law enforcement agencies. In a statement on Sunday, the Postal Inspection Service said that the crash was potentially intentional and that investigators were trying to determine a motive. The agency also said that Mr. Tillman was “reported to be the brother of” Pat Tillman, a star defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals who then enlisted in the U.S. Army after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It was not immediately clear whether Richard Tillman had legal representation. His family members declined to comment on Sunday.

“I’m grateful no one was seriously hurt by this senseless act of destruction,” Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, said in a statement on Sunday. He also acknowledged that mental health issues could have been an underlying factor.

“Criminal acts require accountability,” Mr. Mahan added, “but we also need to commit ourselves to expanding behavioral health treatment and intervening earlier in California to reduce the likelihood that situations like this transpire.”

Pat Tillman was a high-profile representative of a surge in patriotism and interest in military service inspired by the Sept. 11 attacks, forsaking a multimillion-dollar football career to become an Army Ranger. He became emblematic of the steep sacrifice that can come with military service, when he was killed in 2004.

Richard Tillman, along with other relatives, publicly challenged the official account of his brother’s death. Military officials originally claimed that Pat Tillman had been shot by Afghan militants before disclosing that he had been killed by friendly fire. (A third brother, Kevin, also served in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger.)

Richard Tillman appeared in a documentary directed by Amir Bar-Lev detailing the family’s exhaustive efforts to reveal a more complicated story of Pat Tillman’s life and death and their anger with military officials.

The younger Mr. Tillman has also worked as an actor, with a series of small roles in movies and on television, as a standup comedian and as the author of children’s books that sought to impart empathy and compassion.

The post office building in San Jose sustained serious damage. Marcus Lee, who works at a massage therapy business near the post office, was alarmed to see its charred exterior and a gaping hole in the front. “It’s scary, seeing something that has been here for this long look like this,” Mr. Lee said.