Arson Patrol Leads Police to Suspect

A group of watchful North Hollywood neighbors, who took up all-night patrols after a monthlong spate of fires hit their street, led police to a suspect early Monday just minutes after a carport fire erupted in the neighborhood.

Reunald Parker, 31, who lives near where seven arson fires have engulfed garages and trash bins, was arrested by police on suspicion of arson soon after four residents saw a man enter and leave a carport that caught fire about 1:30 a.m.

Parker, an X-ray technician, is also under investigation in seven other fires that broke out in the past month in the 5400 block of Bellingham Street, said Inspector Ed Reed of the Los Angeles City Fire Department. Parker was being held in lieu of $10,555 bail at the North Hollywood police station.

“The message here is that authorities do not have enough staff to cover every area,” Reed said. “These residents kept watch and provided us with the information so that we could arrest the suspect at his home.”

Residents of Bellingham Street, a quiet block of apartment buildings, said they had felt so terrorized by the fires that two weeks ago they organized a patrol to track down the arsonist.

“We felt like we were under siege,” said Bill Carver, one of the residents who spotted the suspect behind his apartment Monday morning. “We never knew when we would wake up to a fire. Everyone was nervous. No one could sleep well at night. I have been up all night watching the back garage every five minutes.”

Two women equipped with binoculars, walkie-talkies and a cellular phone had perched themselves on the block’s highest rooftop at 11 p.m. Sunday, the second night of the surveillance. Two men carrying radios patrolled the neighborhood.

“We spotted a man walking around the building and within seconds the carport was in flames,” said Stephanie Tapper, a patrol leader watching from the roof. Tapper said she called 911 to report the fire while her partner radioed the men who were on patrol. The men also saw the suspect walk into the carport area.

Resident Sam Sibercheim said he followed the man as he walked away from the fire to a parking lot at the rear of an apartment house two buildings away. The suspect watched firefighters battle the blaze from there, where he lived, Sibercheim said. Neither Tapper nor Sibercheim said they actually saw the man ignite the fire.

“I kept an eye on him,” Sibercheim said. “He was looking over the side of the wall, watching the fire. We didn’t think to physically handle him. . . . The guy was wearing a trench coat. He could have had a shotgun. . . . When the police arrived we pointed him out and they arrested him.”

It took firefighters about 18 minutes to extinguish the fire, which destroyed five cars. The apartment building was not damaged and no one was injured.

Residents in the arson-watch group said they did not know Parker. His apartment manager said Parker had lived in the building “for a couple of months,” but declined to say anything more about him. One of the seven fires had erupted in the garage of the building where Parker lived.

On Monday afternoon, residents said they still felt jittery about the fires. Several vowed to continue their patrol group.

“He is just a suspect right now,” Culver said. “There could be others involved. But God, I hope this is the guy so I can get some rest.”