Prosecutors on Friday revealed new details about an arson suspect and the massive fire he is accused of starting at a sprawling warehouse in Ontario.
Chamel Abdulkarim, a 29-year-old resident of Highland, was being held without bail after being booked on multiple felony counts, the Ontario Police Department said.
“Investigators are aware of a video circulating on social media that may depict elements of the incident,” police said in a statement. “Detectives are actively reviewing and working to authenticate the footage as part of the ongoing investigation.”
Abdulkarim was taken into custody after a search warrant was served at his home, authorities said, adding that evidence collected at the time of his arrest was being analyzed as part of the investigation.
“In a phone call to one witness, the defendant compared himself to Luigi Mangione,” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said at a Friday morning news conference, referring to the murder suspect charged in the death of Brian Thompson, the CEO of the United States’ biggest health insurer. “Look, America is founded on free enterprise and capitalism. Anyone who attacks our values, our way of life, our system, which provides the best goods and services to the most people, we’re gonna come after aggressively.”
The suspect was charged with one count of aggravated arson and six counts of arson of a structure, according to San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson. The inferno destroyed the 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse and paper products inside that were worth $500 million, Anderson said.
The suspect’s booking photo was released and a scheduled court appearance was postponed.
Authorities said Abdulkarim he was working at the Kimberly-Clark Distribution Center through a third-party company at the time of the fire.
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.
The fire, which erupted shortly after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday near Hellman and Merrill avenues, destroyed the more than one-million-square-foot facility. Firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the building, and no injuries were reported. The warehouse was filled with paper products from familiar brands like Kleenex to Huggies diapers.
