According to a report in The Daily Mail, the British outlet, police in Los Angeles County have arrested an arson suspect who was caught by residents seemingly trying to start fires with a blowtorch, and it was just found out that he is an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He was first restrained by residents who saw him trying to start fires.
The man who was arrested was first described as a homeless man who was found armed with a blowtorch in the West Hills area. He is suspected of having started the Kenneth Fire, one of three LA-area wildfires that destroyed much of the city’s environs. That fire was about 1000 acres and tore through the West Hills area, though it was, unlike the Palisades and Eaton fires, partially contained relatively quickly rather than burning out of control.
According to the police, the arrested arson suspect, an illegal immigration, is suspected of having intentionally started the Kenneth Fire, but was restrained by citizens in the area who saw him with a blowtorch “about 20 to 30 minutes” after he allegedly started the roaring, highly destructive blaze with his blowtorch.
At the time, January 9, LAPD’s Charles Dinsel said, “A suspect was detained over in Woodland Hills area by citizens. It is being investigated as a crime.” Continuing, when asked if it was suspected that the arrested arson suspect had intentionally begun the horrible blaze, he said, “At this time, that’s what we believe. Yes.”
A witness, speaking to FOX 11 about the arrest, said that the suspected arsonist was “very focused on moving forward with the blow torch” and that he said, “I can’t stop. I can’t stop. I’m not putting this down. I’m doing this.” Another witness, speaking to KTLA, said that the community who arrested him “really banded together as a group”and “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 citizen’s arrest.”
But that is somewhat old news at this point. What is new is that, as was revealed late in the evening on January 12, a Sunday, and largely reported on in the morning of Monday, January 13, the suspected arsonist who started that Kenneth Fire blaze has been revealed to be an illegal immigrant originally from Mexico.
Such is what the Daily Mail reported in an updated article on the morning of January 13, reporting, “The homeless arson suspect who was taken into custody near one of the Los Angeles wildfires is an illegal immigrant, it was revealed Sunday night.” Continuing, the Daily Mail article reported that the illegal immigrant arson suspect has “since been identified as Mexican national Juan Manuel Sierra-Leyva.”
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Unfortunately, the LAPD initially did not have enough probably cause to arrest Sierra-Leyva on arson charges. LA Police Department Divisional Chief Dominic Choi said, “After the interview and additional investigative steps, looking at some additional evidence that was present, they made the determination that there was not enough probable cause to arrest this person on arson or suspicion of arson.” Fortunately, however, they were able to keep him on a probation violation and have since been able to continue investigating the matter and gathering evidence.
Watch citizens detain the blowtorch-wielding suspect here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video