The Los Angeles Police Department has faced sharp criticism after releasing a man caught in the act of lighting fires in West Hills using a flamethrower. According to the LAPD, there was “no probable cause” to detain or arrest him.
TPV: The man was found in possession of five GPS-enabled cell phones and a United Nations-sponsored prepaid debit card at the time he was tackled by vigilant onlookers. Witnesses say they intervened after seeing him ignite a blaze dangerously close to the site of a raging wildfire currently spreading out of control.
Locals have called the decision to release the man baffling and questioned why such damning evidence was deemed insufficient to justify an arrest. Local residents, already reeling from wildfire destruction, expressed frustration over the incident, with many claiming the wildfires were orchestrated by hidden hands and are being allowed to rage out of control.
BREAKING: LAPD says no probable cause for arson regarding suspect arrested with *blow torch* trying to IGNITE FIRES.
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 10, 2025
His name is still unknown. pic.twitter.com/2hh06kNlny
NY Post report: The unidentified suspect was seen riding around Woodland Hills on a bicycle on Thursday afternoon setting fire to several old Christmas trees and garbage cans at the same time as the Kenneth Fire started, locals said.
Renata Grinshpun told KTLA she was in her backyard when she heard a car screech to a stop and a man yelling, “Neighbors, he’s trying to start a fire! Call 911!’”
She saw the suspect holding a large “propane tank or a flamethrower” — which others described as a blowtorch — as he tried to torch debris in the street.
Neighbors jumped into action and cornered the man as he tried to ride off, as caught in part in a video — with one man yelling at him: “Put it down!”
“We really banded together as a group,” Grinshpun told KTLA. “A few gentlemen surrounded him and got him on his knees. They got some zip ties, a rope and we were able to do a citizens’ arrest.”
One witness told Fox 11 that the suspect was “very focused on moving forward” with what the described as being more like a blowtorch.
“He was like, ‘I can’t stop. I can’t stop. I’m not putting this down. I’m doing this,’” the witness said.
“And we’re like, ‘We can’t be doing that right now.’”
Soon after the suspect was taken into custody, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed it was investigating the Kenneth Fire as likely arson.
“At this time, that’s what we believe. It’s being investigated as a crime,” LAPD Senior Lead Officer Sean Dinse initially told KTLA.
The major crimes squad was brought in because he was “a possible arson suspect,” LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi told reporters in an update later Friday.
However, the homeless man had so-far only been arrested on a felony parole violation because “there was not enough probable cause to arrest this person on arson or suspicion on arson,” Choi said.
“This investigation is ongoing, however,” he stressed, thanking the citizens who tackled him and called it in.
It was not immediately clear what felony the suspect, who has still yet to be publicly identified, was on parole for.
