Man Held in 2 Arson Fires at Condominium

A 32-year-old Northridge man who, his friends say, is dying of cancer, was arrested Friday on suspicion of setting two fires at a condominium complex under construction about one block from his home, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said.

Robert Bruce Williams was arrested by Fire Department arson investigators and Los Angeles police officers after they broke down the door of his home at 3:40 p.m. Friday.

Williams’ single-story house, in the 17730 block of Superior Street, is about a block west of the 114-unit condominium complex being built at 17806 Kinzie St. that arson investigators say was intentionally set ablaze on Jan. 8 and again on Wednesday. The second blaze finished the destruction of the construction site that the first one had started. A third fire at the site this week was determined to be accidental.

At a Friday evening press conference outside Williams’ home, Fire Chief Donald Manning said the suspect would be booked for investigation of arson, possession of narcotics and possession of weapons. Manning said a large number of handguns and rifles, and an undisclosed amount of marijuana and cocaine were found in Williams’ house by authorities who entered with search warrants.

“Our lead to him was people who called in (to investigators),” Manning said, adding that there is evidence connecting Williams to the Kinzie Street blazes, but he would not discuss it in detail.

Fire Department spokesman Patrick Patterson said the motive for the alleged crime was not known.

Patterson said that the setting of the two Kinzie Street fires, and six others in the Los Angeles area at unfinished apartment and condominium complexes, “may be linked, but that has not been definitely determined.”

Williams, who lived with several friends, was described Friday by housemates and neighbors as a somewhat eccentric person who almost always wore battle fatigues. But they also said he is a generous person, who they believe is innocent.

Shouted ‘Let Him Go’

As a police car carried Williams past a large group of reporters and neighbors Friday night, neighbors shouted, “Let him go” and “Hang in there, Bruce.”

Williams had a recent operation for stomach cancer, a friend, Richard Armenta, said, adding that Williams is undergoing chemotherapy.

Police said that because of Williams’ cancer, it may be necessary to move the suspect to the jail ward at County-USC Medical Center.

Neighbors said Williams had lived in the Northridge house for six years. They said he collected guns as a hobby and left his house at all hours of the day and night to photograph birds and possums. He was described by one neighbor as a “good guy” who would “give you the shirt off his back.”

“He’s no arsonist, he’s a photographer,” Armenta said.

Another neighbor, Mark Enbody, said Williams is an amateur photographer who took pictures of one of the Kinzie Street fires and sold them to a news wire service, possibly Associated Press or United Press International. Editors with the two wire services, however, said they had never heard of Williams.

Bill Searby, also a neighbor, said that he worked with Williams about two years ago as a security guard at the Bermite-Whittaker Corp., a weapons manufacturing company in Saugus. He said Williams left that job to work for a photo etching company in Pacoima. Lately, Williams has been unemployed, Searby said.

The two arson fires at the Kinzie Street complex caused about $2.6 million in damage. Sean Brown, superintendent of construction at the site, said the structure will be completely torn down and another complex will be built.

Capt. William Huff, a Los Angeles city firefighter, suffered a broken back while fighting Wednesday’s blaze.