California Arson Suspect Killed, Another Arrested - Reward Offered
October 24, 2007
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Amid worries of new blazes adding to the firestorm already afflicting the region, a man in Hesperia has been arrested on suspicion of arson, and police reported shooting and killing another arson suspect after chasing him out of scrub behind Cal State San Bernardino.
Law enforcement officials said today that they didn’t know whether either of the men had started any of the more than a dozen large fires that have devastated Southern California in recent days, including the nearby Lake Arrowhead blaze. The brush fire in Hesperia was quickly extinguished by residents.
Investigators have said that at least two of the huge wildfires, one in Orange County and the other in Temecula, were the work of arsonists.
The confrontation that ended in the shooting death started about 6 p.m. Tuesday when San Bernardino university police spotted a man in a rural area of flood channels and scrub near the campus. University police tried to detain the man, but he got into his car and fled, authorities said. When he began to ram officers’ vehicle, they shot him.
The suspect is described as a 27-year-old man with a home address in Arizona. Sheriff’s investigators will search his impounded pickup truck pending a search warrant, Lt. Scott Patterson of the San Bernardino Police Department said this afternoon.
No additional information, including his identity will be released until Thursday.
UPDATE: Santiago Fire Officially Declared Arson - Reward Offered
A major wildfire that has scorched thousands of acres and destroyed hundreds of homes in Southern California has been declared an arson, according to Orange County law enforcement and FBI officials said on Wednesday.
Officials said that there is a $70,000 reward for information leading to an arrest for those responsible for the Santiago fire in the rugged eastern part of the county.
Additionally, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a $50,000 reward for information leading toward the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for setting the Santiago Fire.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said that no search warrants have been served, and there are no suspects in custody. The FBI has become involved in the investigation because part of the fire was on federal land in National Forest.
UPDATE 10/25/07 5:20am - Arson investigators search ignition site
Deputies kept a throng of reporters at bay Wednesday while federal and local arson investigators scoured the site along Santiago Canyon Road where the 19,200-acre arson fire began in three spots, according to sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.
Investigators collected evidence and secured the charred crime scene, near an area known to locals as “Grumpys.”
The presence of FBI, ATF and other investigators sparked new interest in the three-day old arson investigation. Rumors swirled from the canyon roads and through the national air waves that authorities searched a house in connection with the Santiago Fire. The source of the rumor was an unattributed Associated Press report originating out of Washington, D.C.
One by one representatives from the various federal, state and local agencies debunked the rumor, which still took most of the day to die.
It is standard procedure for the FBI and other federal agencies to join arson investigations when the fire burns into federal wildlands.
Sheriff’s and Fire Authority officials said they have not zeroed in on a single suspect and need the public to come forward with any information that may lead them to the person or people who set the devestating blaze.
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