Police Kill One Arson Suspect; Arrest Another

Oh my:

Amid worries of new blazes adding to the firestorm already afflicting the region, a man in Hesperia has been arrested on suspicion of arson, and police reported shooting and killing another arson suspect after chasing him out of scrub behind Cal State San Bernardino.

…The confrontation that ended in the shooting death started about 6 p.m. Tuesday when San Bernardino university police spotted a man in a rural area of flood channels and scrub near the campus. University police tried to detain the man, but he got into his car and fled, authorities said. When he began to ram officers' vehicle, they shot him.

…About three hours later in Hesperia, a man was seen by a female motorist squatting along the side of Highway 173 just south of Arrowhead Lake Road. Sheriff's officials say John Alfred Rund, 48, of Hesperia had just started a fire along the flat, isolated, scrubby road. The woman called police…

A CHP helicopter, using infrared equipment, caught sight of Rund on his motorcycle… He was being held on $750,000 bail on suspicion of arson and is to appear in court tomorrow in Victorville.

At least two of the 23 fires that have burned across almost half a million acres and destroyed nearly 2,000 homes are suspected to be the work of arsonists. The cause of those fires are under investigation, as is the shooting death of the man who was identified as "a suspicious person in a brush area."

It's difficult for cool heads to prevail amidst a half million acres of flames. I fear that flaring tempers may need containing as much as the fires themselves at this point.