An employee who allegedly burned down a California warehouse compared himself to Luigi Mangione in a message to co-workers after setting the fire, according to authorities in a Friday press conference, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Chamel Abdulkarim, 29, has been charged with several counts of felony and state arson after a massive fire destroyed the Kimberly-Clark paper products warehouse in Ontario, California, about an hour outside of Los Angeles.
The warehouse fire broke out at 12.30am on Tuesday, with police arresting Abdulkarim shortly after. The fire quickly progressed into a six-alarm blaze, with about 175 firefighters responding to the emergency. The blaze resulted in more than $600m in damage, with $500m in paper products destroyed as well as the $150m warehouse.
Fire investigators said Abdulkarim texted a co-worker after the blaze, comparing himself to 27-year-old Mangione, who is facing charges for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.
“Look, America is founded on free enterprise and capitalism,” said Bill Essayli, the first assistant United States attorney for the central district of California, during the press conference. “Anyone who attacks our values, our way of life, our system, which provides the best goods and services to the most people, we’re gonna come after aggressively.”
Police said on Friday that video footage posted on social media also shows Abdulkarim setting fire to toilet paper and other combustibles in the warehouse. In the same video, the individual is heard saying that he does not make enough money to live on.
Other small fires were seen burning in the background of the video.
A co-worker told KABC that Abdulkarim was not initially a suspect in the arson. “There was no suspicion that it was him – actually he was missing. So everyone was trying to find him. Everyone was blaming the robots at first. We were almost 100% sure it was the robots until the action in the video of course,” said Alex Montero, a resident of San Bernardino.
Abdulkarim faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, with state charges set to be ruled on first.
