Arson suspect chased down by residents after allegedly sparking fire near Chatsworth Reservoir.
A group of neighbors in Chatsworth took action on Monday when they spotted a man allegedly starting brush fires near their homes in a Los Angeles community. In a dramatic sequence captured on video, the residents chased, tackled, and detained the suspect until Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies arrived to take him into custody.
Resident Amilcar Fajardo described the moment the suspect attempted to flee. “He just started running,” he said. “There were other guys there. They all helped out. We just stopped him and that was it.”
Fajardo, who works in Bell Canyon, was on his way home when he noticed flames near the road. Concerned, he stopped to assess the situation.
“I just see a couple of women and kids running towards the side of the hill,” he recalled. “You can see the heat waves.”
Another resident, Santiago Martinez, lives close to where the fire erupted. He recounted the efforts of both neighbors and firefighters in trying to contain the flames.
“The neighbors and the firefighters were really trying to put out the fire, but if the person is three minutes away from us lighting another fire,” Martinez said. “You really have to act sometimes.”
Martinez claimed to have witnessed the suspect setting another fire along the road near a different community.
“If you see something, you do something,” he stated. “I drove down and I found him. He was starting another fire three minutes from here.”
Realizing the danger, Martinez confronted the suspect, yelling at him to stop. Meanwhile, he, Fajardo, and other neighbors pursued the man down the hill while awaiting the arrival of law enforcement.
Fajardo described the unusual encounter. “He started screaming and it was kind of funny,” he said. “It was just kind of weird. I just took him down.”
He and the others managed to hold the suspect until deputies arrived a few minutes later. Reflecting on the situation, Fajardo emphasized the community’s unity and willingness to protect their neighborhood.
“We all struggled through the fires,” he said. “It just shows you that more people want to do more help than harm.”
Video below…
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