After months of extensive investigation, federal officials announced on Wednesday that they had made an arrest in connection with the Palisades fire, one of the deadly blazes that devastated Los Angeles in January.
The authorities said Jonathan Rinderknecht started a smaller fire on New Year’s Day that erupted days later into the inferno that leveled much of Pacific Palisades, killing 12 people.
Here’s what we know.
Who is Jonathan Rinderknecht?
Mr. Rinderknecht, 29, had been driving for Uber and living in Pacific Palisades, not far from a popular hiking area along Temescal Ridge, when a fire started on Jan. 1, according to an affidavit in support of a federal complaint.
Federal investigators said they determined that Mr. Rinderknecht had dropped off passengers in the area, and later set that Jan. 1 fire. They found that he was the only person in the trail area at the time, according to cellphone and camera data they examined.
Investigators said they also found evidence Mr. Rinderknecht was fascinated with fire and destruction, citing his online history, including ChatGPT prompts.
Investigators pointed to Mr. Rinderknecht’s affinity for a French rap song, “Un Zder, Un Thé” by the artist Josman, which describes despair and malaise. Mr. Rinderknecht, who later told investigators he grew up in France and speaks French fluently, listened to the song nine times in the four days leading up to the Jan. 1 fire. He had also watched the song’s music video, which depicts the artist lighting things on fire.
The authorities said he moved to Melbourne, Fla., sometime after the fire. According to Uber, he is no longer driving for the company and has been banned from the app. Mr. Rinderknecht had also been driving for Door Dash, according to public records.
His lawyer in Florida, Aziza Hawthorne, an assistant federal defender, did not respond to requests for comment.
What was he charged with?
Prosecutors have charged Mr. Rinderknecht with “maliciously” starting a fire that damaged and destroyed federal property. The New Year’s Day fire that they say he started, known as the Lachman fire, burned federal land within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, as well as land owned by the state and a conservation group, both of which receive federal funding.
“A single person’s recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen,” said Bill Essayli, the acting U.S. attorney for the Los Angeles area.
If convicted, Mr. Rinderknecht faces up to 20 years in prison.
Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said at a news conference on Wednesday that they examined more than 13,000 pieces of evidence and more than a million phone records as part of their investigation.
They said they determined that Mr. Rinderknecht had been driving nearby in the Pacific Palisades on New Year’s Eve. He then hiked to the area where a smaller fire ignited just after midnight on Jan. 1. Federal prosecutors said he set that fire with an open flame, using a lighter.
Mr. Rinderknecht tried to call 911 multiple times before finally getting through, according to the affidavit. They said he took video at the trailhead and offered to help firefighters extinguish the blaze when he encountered them as he left the scene.
Local firefighters believed that smaller fire, the Lachman fire, was extinguished by Jan. 2. But on Jan. 7, an unusually fierce wind storm reignited invisible smoldering embers, according to investigators. Those would rage out of control and become the Palisades fire.
When did the Palisades fire start?
The Palisades fire started on Jan. 7, just before 10:30 a.m.
Whipped by hurricane-force winds, embers became flames racing from the hiking trail into neighborhoods of large homes hours later. Homes continued to burn on Jan. 8 as firefighting forces were stretched by multiple fires that erupted on the same day, including the Eaton fire, which killed 19 people and destroyed thousands of homes on the eastern side of Los Angeles County.
What role ChatGPT plays in the case
Prosecutors’ portrait of Mr. Rinderknecht is drawn heavily from his prompts for the generative artificial intelligence app ChatGPT, according to the affidavit.
In July, Mr. Rinderknecht prompted the app to generate a “dystopian painting divided into two parts,” according to the court document. On one side, he asked it to show a burning forest and people running away from the fire. On the other side of the image, he asked ChatGPT to depict a gate marked with a “gigantic dollar sign.”
“On the other side of the gate and the entire wall is a conglomerate of the richest people,” he continued in the prompt. “They are chilling, watching the world burn down, and watching the people struggle. They are laughing, enjoying themselves, and dancing.”
The authorities displayed the image ChatGPT generated at a news conference announcing the arrest on Wednesday.
In November, according to the affidavit, Mr. Rinderknecht wrote into ChatGPT that he burned a Bible, and wrote that, “It felt amazing. I felt so liberated.” He wrote a similar message to a family member.
Shortly after the Lachman fire started, he asked ChatGPT, “Are you at fault if a fire is lift because of your cigarettes,” misspelling the word “lit.” The app’s response was “Yes,” with an explanation.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, said the company cooperated with law enforcement requests for information. The company, which has faced scrutiny for the way that ChatGPT interacts with users, particularly children, said there had been no indication that the app generated content that goes against the company’s policies.
How have fire victims reacted?
Brian Park, whose home in the Palisades burned late on the morning of Jan. 8, said he was frustrated that even though there had been a fire in the area, and officials knew a major wind storm was likely, officials did not post firefighting resources or monitor the previous ignition site.
“Where that Jan. 1 event was ignited is almost irrelevant,” Mr. Park said.
Terry Fahn and his family moved into their newly constructed home in the Palisades in 2013. It was destroyed in the fire, and Wednesday marked two months since they submitted plans to rebuild — almost the exact same plans that they used to build their home in the first place.
Mr. Fahn said that city planners had asked for changes and had delayed giving the permit. City leaders had promised that rebuilding permits would be approved quickly without red tape getting in the way. Mr. Fahn said he and his family would feel a greater sense of closure if they were able to move forward with rebuilding.
“It would give us more hope,” he added. For now, he said, “our elected officials are not living up to their promises.”
Ryan Mac contributed reporting.
Jill Cowan is a Times reporter based in Los Angeles, covering the forces shaping life in Southern California and throughout the state.
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