Griffith Park Arson Arrest

Councilmember LaBonge points to the area of the most recent brushfire Saturday when he joined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles Fire Department officials in announcing the arrest of a suspect in the recent Griffith Park fires.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Councilmember LaBonge and Los Angeles Fire Department officials were relieved to announce on Saturday that an arson suspect was arrested in the recent spate of brushfires in Griffith Park.
Gary Allen Lintz, a 43-year-old transient whose last known address was in Glendale, was arrested in a dramatic sequence of events involving citizens and the fire department's arson and counter-terrorism unit.
"It was like a movie that they could have shot over there at Warner Brothers Studios," the Councilmember said during a press conference in the TravelTown section of the park, near that studio's lot in Burbank. "This is a great relief." Hikers spotted Mr. Lintz bicycling away from the area of a brushfire Saturday. Undercover arson investigators then noticed him join a group of nearby cyclists. He was conspicuous because, unlike the others, he was not wearing biking gear. They pulled him over for questioning and discovered evidence linking him to the fires, said LAFD Battalion Chief John Miller. The arrest was the culminating event in several tense weeks for Los Angeles park and fire officials. Eight suspicious fires had been set in Griffith Park in a three-week period, burning a total of 200 acres. Coming just 15 months after a massive fire that burned almost one-quarter of the 4,218-acre park, the incidents were particularly alarming. Last week, Councilmember LaBonge met with hundreds of hikers asking them to help city officials by reporting any suspicious behavior that might be fire-related. He also convened a meeting for 50 agency- and department heads involved in fire-fighting and park management in Los Angeles to strategize ways to work effectively to find the culprit.