One arson suspect arrested, another shot and killed by police
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Amid worries of new blazes adding to the firestorm already afflicting the region, a man who set a brush fire in Hesperia was arrested today on suspicion of arson, and police reported shooting and killing another arson suspect after chasing him out of scrub behind Cal State San Bernardino.
Law enforcement officials said Wednesday that they did not know whether either of the men started any of the more than a dozen large fires that have devastated Southern California in recent days, including the nearby Lake Arrowhead blaze. The Hesperia blaze in the arson case was quickly extinguished by spectators.
At least one of the huge wildfires, the Rosa fire in Temecula, was described as the work of an arsonist, investigators have said.
The confrontation that ended in the shooting death started around 6 p.m. Tuesday when San Bernardino university police spotted a man in a rural area of flood channels and scrub near the campus. University police tried to detain the man, but he got into his car and fled, authorities said.
“We don’t know whether he was an arsonist,” said Lt. Scott Patterson of the San Bernardino Police Department, which joined the pursuit. “What was related by the Cal State police was that they tried to contact him as a suspicious person in a brush area. Things being how they are, there was a suspicion that he could be an arsonist.”
The area near the campus had been affected by the massive Old Fire of 2003, Patterson said, adding that “it’s very fire-prone. It’s an area that would be very devastated if a fire were to start there.”
The man, whose identity has not been released, drove north on Waterman Avenue and up a dirt fire road up into the foothills. When officers tried to take him into custody, the man began to ram officers’ vehicles, Patterson said. Officers shot and killed him.
“Both agencies’ officers fired,” said University Police Chief Jimmie Brown, who added that they didn’t know who fired the fatal shot. “But right now, we don’t know too much more.”
The shooting is being investigated by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, which is routine for officer-involved shootings.
About three hours later in Hesperia, a man was seen by a female motorist squatting along the side of Highway 173 just south of Arrowhead Lake Road. Sheriff’s officials say John Alfred Rund, 48, of Hesperia had just started a fire along the flat, isolated scrubby road.
The woman called police, and soon Highway Patrol and sheriff’s deputies were looking for the suspect, who witnesses said took off on a Honda motorcycle, wearing a red-and-white striped helmet.
Four residents of the area grabbed shovels and put out the brush fire with dirt, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller.
A CHP helicopter, using infrared equipment, caught sight of Rund on his motorcycle, Miller said. Along with CHP officers, sheriff’s deputies found and arrested Rund at a home along Highway 173 near Highway 138, she said.
He is being held on $750,000 bail on suspicion of arson, and is due in court tomorrow at Victorville Superior Court. Rund is unemployed, Miller said.
“He has not been connected in anyway so far with any fire up on the hill,” she said. “We don’t know at this point what started that fire.”