A homeless man allegedly trying to start a fire with a blowtorch was tackled and zip-tied by furious Los Angeles locals carrying out a citizen’s arrest.
Locals claim the man was riding a bicycle around the Woodland Hills neighborhood on Thursday afternoon and carrying a large ‘propane tank or a flamethrower’.
Community members claim they surrounded the man, brought him to the ground and detained him up with zip ties after they allegedly saw him trying to set fire to an object behind a vehicle.
One witness said the man was ‘very focused on moving forward with the blow torch’, telling FOX 11 the suspect said: ‘I can’t stop. I can’t stop. I’m not putting this down. I’m doing this.’
Police were called to the 21700 block of Ybarra Road in Woodland Hills around 4.30pm, after the man was stopped.
Renata Grinshpun recalled how the community ‘really banded together as a group’. She 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 citizen’s arrest.’
LAPD has confirmed the cause of the unruly Kenneth Fire, which erupted late Thursday afternoon in the San Fernando Valley and is rapidly tearing through the West Hills, is being investigated as a crime.
Authorities have one suspect in custody who is believed to have intentionally started a fire, but have not confirmed the person’s identity. It is currently unclear whether the man detained by Woodland Hills locals was found to have any connection to the wildfires or if he has been formally charged.
