LA Arson Suspect Charged, on Suicide Watch

Posted January 5th, 2012 at 12:35 am (UTC-5)
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Authorities have charged a German citizen with 37 counts of arson in connection with dozens of fires set across Los Angeles over the New Year’s weekend.

Harry Burkhart made a brief court appearance on Wednesday, appearing disoriented at times.Burkhart is accused of going on a four-day arson rampage, setting more than 50 fires across the Los Angeles area that caused about $3 million in damage.

The judge ordered him to remain in jail on $2.85 million bail and that his passport be surrendered. The 24-year-old’s arraignment was postponed until January 24.

Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley says Burkhart deserves a long sentence for the terror he caused to the people of Los Angeles.

“Very simply the amount of harm he did to psyche of the citizens of these particular communities and all of Los Angeles county, I think it merits a life term. And the potential danger that he presented to certain individuals who were sleeping in their beds at night, who could have been unaware of the fires, hearing problems, didn’t smell the smoke, no smoke detectors,was almost an act of attempted murder.”

Authorities said on Wednesday that Burkhart has been on suicide watch since his arrest on Monday.

Cooley says its believed that Burkhart actions were triggered by the arrest of his mother.

“A sense that this particular individual was set off by the incarceration of his mother, with whom he appears to be quite close, and he had latent anti-American views.”

The first of the blazes broke out Friday, the day after 53-year-old Dorothee Burkhart appeared in court. During his mother’s hearing, Burkhart went off on an obscenity-laced rant against the United States.

Ms. Burkhart was arrested under an international warrant, and is facing 19 counts of fraud and embezzlement.

In her own court appearance on Tuesday, Ms. Burkhart asked why her son was not present, apparently unaware he had been arrested. She told the federal judge her son was mentally ill. She also speculated that the Nazis had discovered their address.

Prosecutors in his native Germany say Burkhart also is under investigation for suspected arson of his family’s home in a town near Frankfurt .

Most of the arson attacks targeted cars parked either outside homes or in parking structures. No one was killed or seriously injured in the arson spree. Authorities are looking into whether other suspects were involved.

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