A homeless man was tackled by brave onlookers who say they saw him using a “flamethrower” to start blazes close to where one of the latest wildfires ravaging Los Angeles broke out.
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.