ONTARIO, Calif. — On Friday, prosecutors unveiled further information concerning a suspect accused of igniting a huge blaze at a vast warehouse in Ontario, California.
Chamel Abdulkarim, a 29-year-old from Highland, California, is currently being held without bail after his arrest on multiple felony charges, according to the Ontario Police Department.
“Investigators are aware of a social media video that might capture aspects of the incident,” the police stated. “Detectives are actively examining and working to confirm the video’s authenticity as part of the ongoing investigation.”
Authorities reported that Abdulkarim was apprehended following a search warrant executed at his residence, during which evidence was gathered and is now under analysis as the investigation proceeds.
During a news conference on Friday morning, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli disclosed that in a conversation with a witness, the defendant likened himself to Luigi Mangione, a murder suspect in the case of Brian Thompson’s death, the CEO of the nation’s largest health insurer. Essayli remarked, “America is built on free enterprise and capitalism. We will aggressively pursue anyone who threatens our values and way of life, which offers the best goods and services to the most people.”
San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson announced that the suspect faces one charge of aggravated arson and six charges of arson of a structure. The fire, which began around 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday, obliterated the 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse and its contents, including $500 million worth of paper products, Anderson reported.
The suspect’s booking photo was released and a scheduled arraignment was postponed until Monday. He faces 10 years to life in prison if convicted as charged.
“Arson to me is a real head-scratcher,” the district attorney said.” I do not understand somebody who is suspected of arson does something where they get no value out of it, other than to displace people from their jobs, to ruin commerce, to get in the way of labor, to put people in physical harm. We want to be certain at least for our residents, as sensitive as we are to arson in this county, particularly in Southern California, that these crimes are taken very, very serious.”
Authorities said Abdulkarim was working at the Kimberly-Clark Distribution Center through a third-party company at the time of the fire. No one was injured in the blaze.
Investigators say they are reviewing the video posted to social media, which appears to show cases of toilet paper being set on fire inside a warehouse. In the video, a person repeatedly says he is not paid enough to live on.
A co-worker of the suspect told reporters he had just met Abdulkarim moments before the fire broke out and said there was initially no suspicion that he was involved.
“There was no suspicion that it was him, actually he was missing. So everyone was trying to find him. Everyone was blaming the robots at first. We were almost 100% sure it was the robots until the action in the video of course,” said Alex Montero of San Bernardino.
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