The homeless arson suspect taken into custody in one of the Los Angeles wildfires is an illegal immigrant, it was revealed Sunday evening.
The suspect, who has since been identified as Mexican national Juan Manuel Sierra-Leyva, was caught on video walking with a yellow blowtorch before being confronted by Calabasas residents.
They held his arms behind his back and pushed him to the ground as they waited for police to arrive on the scene near the Kenneth Fire.
A witness later said the suspect was “very focused on moving on with the blowtorch,” telling FOX 11 the suspect said, “I can’t stop. I can’t stop. I’m not putting this down. I’m doing this.’
Renata Grinshpun also recalled how the community “really worked together as a group.” She told me KTL: ‘Some gentlemen surrounded him and put him on his knees. They got some zip ties and some rope and we were able to make a citizen’s arrest.”
As an officer approached, the three men who intervened were seen pointing the suspect at the police officer, who then took the suspect into custody.
Police officers said at the time that the suspect was taken to the Topanga Police Station after being held for “approximately 20 to 30 minutes.”
Sources also told DailyMail.com that a resident called 911 around 4:30 PM Thursday to report a man was trying to start a fire on the 21700 block of Ybarra Road.
The homeless arson suspect taken into custody near the scene of one of three Los Angeles wildfires has been identified as Mexican national Juan Manuel Sierra-Leyva
Officials took him into custody but said they had no probable cause to arrest him on arson charges and instead arrested him for a probation violation.
But officials later said they had no probable cause to arrest him on arson charges and instead arrested him for a probation violation.
“After the interview and additional investigative steps, looking at additional evidence that was present, they concluded that there was not enough probable cause to arrest this individual on arson or suspicion of arson,” said Dominic Choi, division chief of the LA police. according to the Daily Wire.
They said the investigation was “ongoing.” Sierra-Leyva is due back in court on Monday.
In the meantime, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials plan to file a detainer request in Sierra-Leyva, but they do not expect it to be honored due to California’s sanctuary law, Bill Melugin reports.
Still, the arrest request comes as four fires burn through 100,000 acres in L.A.’s most affluent neighborhoods, wiping out A-list celebrity homes and restaurant hotspots among the 12,300 buildings.
The Los Angeles Medical Examiner updated the death toll on Sunday afternoon, revealing that 24 people have now been confirmed to have died as a result of the fires.
Dozens of others are missing as evacuees locked out of their suburbs wait anxiously to return home and see what — if anything — remains.
As cadaver dogs are deployed to locate human remains, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna has warned that the death toll is likely to continue to rise.
A firefighting helicopter drops water as the fire grows in the Palisades
The Palisades Fire reached more than 23,000 acres on Sunday evening
The weather is expected to contribute to another period of dangerous and potentially extreme fire conditions that could worsen already burning fires and cause even more new ones to emerge
“The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office and the Los Angeles County Fire Department [are] we use cadaver dogs and do grid searches,” he said.
“I don’t expect good news from that,” he added. ‘We keep people informed.’
Meanwhile, residents in fire-ravaged evacuation zones have been warned that “life-threatening” winds of up to 75 miles per hour would pick up Sunday night and last through Wednesday, raising the risk of the fires spreading even further across Southern California.
“The overall duration of this doesn’t look good,” meteorologist Rose Schoenfield warned.
Also the weather warning is preventing locals from returning home to inspect the damage, and making it more challenging for emergency workers to sift through the ash and rubble in search of dozens of people still missing.
Residents in areas not yet under evacuation orders but subject to Santa Ana winds have also been warned not to mow or trim dry grass, to park their cars on grass and to ensure campfires ‘being completely out’.