I’m curious about what prompted a man to firebomb a police station but so far it appears he isn’t talking even though he was caught red-handed. The attack happened early Sunday morning in Canoga Park, an area west of Burbank. The whole thing was caught on surveillance video.
NEW: LAPD’s Topanga Division station was firebombed Sunday morning at about 1am. A source sent me this video, which shows a suspect throwing a Molotov cocktail against the doors. LAPD tells me officers witnessed it and chased the suspect down. Suspect is now in custody @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/gTozeuDwsR
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 10, 2021
Fox News has details on the attack:
At approximately 12:55 a.m. local time Sunday, a suspect approached the LAPD Topanga Division station with a Molotov cocktail and threw it against the station doors, police told Fox News. It ignited and started a fire. The incident was witnessed by several officers, who chased the suspect and arrested him. The suspect was uncooperative and the motive is unknown, police said…
The LAPD Major Crimes Division is handling the investigation into the incident and is expected to provide more information about the suspect and possible charges later Monday, police spokeswoman Detective Meghan Aguilar told Fox News over the phone.
NBC Los Angeles identified the suspect as 24-year-old Jonathon Rosin, an LA native. He’s now being held on $500,000 bail. TMZ adds that Rosin may be homeless, so maybe this is more about mental illness than it is about making some kind of anti-police statement. Then again, maybe Rosin is just smart enough to keep his mouth shut rather than confirm where he got the idea to do this.
There were a number of incidents of people throwing Molotov Cocktails at police last year. Samantha Shader threw one at an NYPD vehicle with four officers inside back in May 2020. Then there were the two progressive lawyers who torched an empty police car.
In September a rioter threw one at a group of police officers in Portland. He was later identified as an Indianapolis BLM activist and has been arrested and charged with several counts of attempted murder.
Finally, just last month a man threw bleach at police during a traffic stop and then later threw a Molotov Cocktail into a police car that had pursued him. At the time this happened there were lots of people on Twitter suggesting he’d just thrown some water at a cop and it was no big deal. But he later admitted to everything:
A Connecticut man admitted to throwing a cup of bleach in the face of an NYPD officer during a Saturday morning traffic stop in Brooklyn, and then tossed a lit Molotov cocktail at a pursuing NYPD cruiser to “hurt the police,” knowing it would “spark a fire.”
Five additional Molotov cocktails and a red jerry can (a portable gas canister) were recovered in Lionel Virgile’s grey 2000 Lincoln Town Car.
The good news is that despite the intentions of all of these people, no police officers were killed in any of these attacks. Still, watch this clip again to remember how quickly things can change from normal to crazy.
Today, a vehicle stop for running a red light proved once again that no traffic enforcement is “routine.” When approached, the driver doused a cop with a chemical before fleeing, tossing a Molotov cocktail — and finally being arrested. Fortunately, our officers weren’t injured. pic.twitter.com/WBDt89b7F6
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) April 17, 2021
