Worker who set fire to California warehouse compares self with Luigi Mangione | California
An employee who burned down a warehouse in California compared himself to Luigi Mangione in a text message to co-workers after starting the fire, according to officials at a Los Angeles Times press conference on Friday. reported.
Chamel Abdulkarim, 29, was charged with multiple felonies 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 12.30pm on Tuesday and police arrested Abdulkarim soon after. The fire quickly became a six-alarm fire, and approximately 175 firefighters responded to the emergency. The fire caused more than $600 million in damage; $500 million worth of paper products and $150 million worth of warehouses were destroyed.
Fire investigators said Abdulkarim texted a co-worker after the fire, comparing himself to Mangione, the 27-year-old accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.
“Look, America was founded on free enterprise and capitalism,” Bill Essayli, assistant attorney general for the central district of California, said at the press conference. “We will aggressively pursue anyone who attacks our values, our way of life, our system that provides the best products and services to the most people.”
Police said on Friday that video footage posted on social media showed Abdulkarim setting fire to toilet paper and other flammable items in the warehouse. In the same video, the man is heard saying that he does not earn enough money to get by.
Other small fires were also seen burning in the background of the video.
a coworker he told KABC He said Abdulkarim was not initially a suspect of arson. “There was no doubt that it was him, he was actually missing, so everyone was trying to find him. At first, everyone was blaming the robots. Until the action in the video, we were almost 100% sure it was the robots, of course,” said San Bernardino resident Alex Montero.
If convicted, Abdul Karim faces up to 10 years in prison and state charges will be decided first.
