The 2025 Palisades Fire raged for at least 24 days, torching 23,448 acres in Los Angeles County, killing 12 people, and destroying over 6,800 structures.
While state authorities list Jan. 7, 2025, as being the official start of the Palisades Fire, the 30-year-old son of a French citizen is accused of kindling the inferno days earlier.
'It would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money.'
Jonathan Rinderknecht was arrested in October and charged with property destruction by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and willful of malicious burning of timber on federal lands. He is alleged to have set the Lachman Fire on New Year's Day — a fire that was suppressed but apparently continued to burnunderground until revived topside days later by heavy winds.
Federal prosecutors have provided new details about the alleged arsonist.
According to a trial memorandum reviewed by Bloomberg, Rinderknecht "exhibited extreme anger, indignation, and frustration about being unable to find companionship on New Year’s Eve."
This aligns with what investigators previously said about the suspect.
A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives agent claimed in a sworn affidavit that:
- witnesses observed Rinderknecht acting "agitated and angry" on the evening of Dec. 31, 2024;
- Rinderknecht allegedly watched the music video for a despair-themed song featuring fire-setting imagery repeatedly in the days leading up to the Lachman Fire; and
- the suspect asked ChatGPT, "Are you at fault if a fire is life [sic] because of your cigarettes."
Prosecutors said in the new filing that after unsuccessfully trying to make plans with two other people, Rinderknecht — then working as an Uber driver — dropped off passengers in the Palisades area then, "alone again," scaled the hillside where investigators apparently found evidence that the suspect had set a fire with a barbecue lighter.
Qian Weizhong/VCG/Getty Images
Prosecutors further alleged that Rinderknecht had become "increasingly angry with his life and society at large," adding that he had become "fixated on Luigi Mangione" — the 27-year-old Maryland native accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson on Dec. 4, 2024.
According to the trial memorandum, a forensic review of Rinderknecht's computer revealed he had searched for news regarding Mangione using search terms like "free Luigi Mangione," "lets [sic] take down all the billionaires," and "reddit lets kill all the billionaires."
Mangione is apparently admired by more than one alleged arsonist.
Chamel Abdulkarim, a 29-year-old accused of sparking the massive fire that destroyed a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse in Ontario, California, last month, compared himself to Mangione, according to Bill Essayli, the first assistant United States attorney for the Central District of California.
When questioned by investigators about why someone might set the Palisades area ablaze, Rinderknecht said that "it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as 'we're basically being enslaved by them' and compared such an act of 'desperation' to the murder for which Mangione was charged," prosecutors claimed in the filing.
Steven Haney, Rinderknecht’s lawyer, said in a statement to Bloomberg, "I maintain my client’s innocence."
"No misguided theory from the government will change the lack of evidence showing my client started or was responsible for either of the fires for which he is charged. We look forward to proving it at trial," added Haney.
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