Authorities arrested a suspect on Tuesday in connection with the fires that devastated Los Angeles in January, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday.
Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California said Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, is charged with “maliciously starting what became the Palisades Fire,” known as one of the most catastrophic fires in U.S. history. The felony charge carries a mandatory minimum five-year federal prison sentence and is punishable by up to 20 years.
Rinderknecht, an Uber driver, is accused of starting the Lachman Fire on Jan. 1, which the Justice Department said sparked the Palisades fires on Jan. 7, causing billions in damages and killing 31 people. The suspect allegedly lied to authorities about his whereabouts when the Lachman Fire started, Essayli said, citing geolocation data from Rinderknecht’s cellphone. Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Los Angeles Field Division Kenny Cooper said agents collected more than 13,000 items of evidence, carried out 500 scientific tests, and reviewed approximately 1.5 million phone records and data extracted from digital evidence to make the case to arrest Rinderknecht.
“We know this arrest cannot erase the pain or grief or losses endured, but we hope it is a step forward,” Cooper said during a press conference on Wednesday. “But it is proof that justice will not be forgotten, that accountability will be pursued.”
An image Rinderknecht generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city that was collected from his digital devices is also among the evidence officials used to charge the suspect, according to the DOJ. That image was shown by Essayli at the press conference and circulated online.
The suspect was arrested at his Florida residence and is expected to make his first appearance in federal court in Orlando on Wednesday.
Authorities have been investigating Rinderknecht since Jan. 24, when they first identified and interviewed the defendant.
Officials said during the press conference that Rinderknecht started the Lachman fires shortly after midnight on Jan. 1. Two of his Uber passengers that evening told law enforcement he appeared “agitated and angry” that night. DOJ officials said that, after finishing his evening shift, Rinderknecht hiked up a nearby trail in the Pacific Palisades and listened to a rap song with a music video “including objects being lit on fire,” a video he allegedly watched repeatedly in the days leading up to the Lachman Fire.
After allegedly starting the fire, the defendant dialed 911 several times to report the fire, later fleeing the scene in his car before turning around after passing fire engines driving in the opposite direction to fight the fire, officials said.
“The defendant walked up the same trail from earlier that night to watch the fire and firefighters using his iPhone to take short videos of the scene,” Essayli said.
It was during the Jan. 24 interview that police say Rinderknecht lied about where he was when he first saw the Lachman Fire. The suspect said he was near the bottom of a hiking trail. But authorities pointed to cellphone geolocation data for the 911 calls Rinderknecht made reporting the blaze that showed he was standing above the fire in a clearing “merely 30 feet from the blaze as it rapidly grew.”
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Cooper said extensive federal investigations have conclusively determined that the Lachman Fire Rinderknecht is accused of setting led to the Palisades fires.
“The Palisades Fire, reported on Jan. 7, was caused by an intentionally set fire near a viewpoint along the Temescal Ridge Trail in Topanga State Park on Jan. 1,” he said. “The fire was a holdover fire, meaning it was deeply seated in dense vegetation and roots, and continued to burn undetected until catastrophic weather ensued, resulting in the Palisades Fire.”