Bodycam footage shows Palisades Fire suspect’s run-in with Florida police officers
PALM BAY, Fla. (CBS, KYMA) - A suspect federally charged with starting California's devastating Palisades Fire had run-ins with Florida police prior to his arrest.
Footage released by Palm Bay Police shows 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht being pulled over for speeding in Brevard County, Florida on August 2.
In the video, an officer can be heard telling Rinderknecht he was driving 71 mph in a 45 mph zone. The officer asks for identification and while Rinderknecht looks for his driver's license, the officer notices several unmarked pill bottles.
He informs Rinderknecht it is illegal to drive around with unmarked prescription bottles.
Rinderknecht is later asked to step out of his vehicle and an officer examines the pills, which are later returned after he determines they are not illicit.
The officer then informs Rinderknecht of a $284 citation for speeding, and tells him if he had been speeding at 75 mph he would be given a court date and a $500 fine.
On Wednesday, October 8, the U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California, said Rinderknecht was arrested and charged with "maliciously starting what eventually became the Palisades Fire of January 2025."
"Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, aka 'Jonathan Rinder,' and 'Jon Rinder,' of Melbourne, Florida, is charged with destruction of property by means of fire," the attorney's office wrote in a press release. "Law enforcement determined – using witness statements, video surveillance, cellphone data, and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene, among other things – that Rinderknecht maliciously set the Lachman Fire just after midnight on January 1."
According to the attorney's office, the Palisades Fire was a "holdover fire," a continuation of the Lachman Fire.
If convicted, Rinderknecht could face a "mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison."
12 people died in the Palisades Fire, and thousands of home were destroyed, according to the Los Angeles Times.
