Authorities Arrest Suspected Arsonist (California)

News4 ^ | October 28, 2003

[hotpotato]

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST -- A man was arrested Tuesday after deputies caught him setting a fire in a steep, remote canyon filled with dry brush and large trees in the Angeles National Forest, according to sheriff detectives.

Hikers in a remote trail about a half-mile north of the Eaton Canyon Bridge in Altadena saw a man making a fire there and alerted authorities, sheriff's Detective Ed Nordskog said.

Los Angeles County Parks officials and deputies arrived about 10 a.m. as the man was standing next to a fire about four feet in diameter. He warned the deputies to stay away and not extinguish the blaze, Nordskog said.

The man, identified as Dikran Armouchian, 23, of Pasadena,

[sully777]

"'He warned the deputies to stay away and not extinguish the blaze,' Nordskog said."

Get back, Jack! My name is Dik and I can flick a bic.

ROTFLOL! What was he going to do? Was he going to kick dirt at the deputies and call them nasty names?

[hotpotato]

If I had been out there attempting to protect my home, family, and pets from the raging fires (and looters) and I had seen him lighting fires and he had threatened me to not interfere, I can honestly say it would have been difficult to restrain myself.

[Porterville]

If I had to guess, I would think this maybe terrorism, because if Dikran is a Armenian name, then it could be.... Iranian, Turkish, Azerbaijani or Iraqi....

[hotpotato]

I ran a google search on his last name and came up with absolutely zilch. Nadda. His first name brings results but I can't make much from it. Odd that his last name (as spelled in the article) turns up nothing. Could be misspelled.

[John H K]

Armenia is the oldest Christian nation on earth.

[Porterville]

Or could be spelled differently, try some variations of the last name.... I bet Persian.

[RandallFlagg]

If the little firebug's connected with ELF, his name matters not. Terror is terror.

[hotpotato]

I've noticed the grocery strikers aren't quite as enthusiastic since the fires began burning down southern California. I suspect they have learned that patrons don't have the patience for it right now.

[John H K]

A bit frustrated the apparent ethnicity of the name doesn't match the religion you were hoping for?

There's a large Persian population in Northern Virginia, have not encountered any -ian names among them; every -ian I've known or heard of was Armenian.

Otherwise, I genuinely don't know if there are any Persians with -ian names....will try to research.

[hotpotato]

Apostolic

I had to look that up 8-}

[John H K]

Grabbing a dictionary and looking at the Indo-European language tree at the back, Armenian and Persian aren't closely related languages at all....Persian is part of the Indo-Iranian family. Armenian is off in a family all by itself.

[hotpotato]

Does he look like the police sketch which was released today?

Can't say. There is no picture available at this time. Age fits. I've tried to run a search for more info and haven't found anything but this story online. They mentioned it on local ABC news and that's what caused me to look it up online (no picture there, either). The bail should be much higher. That bothers me a lot. He may be out tonight if his family has the money.

[faithincowboys]

Sounds like a potential religion of peace guy to me. He should go straight to Hell.

[PRND21]

Origin of the Armenians

Armenia reached the zenith of its political power and territorial expansion under King Tigranes (Dikran) the Great,

When the Persian King Yezegrid II (Hazgerd II) ordered the Armenians to become Zoroastrian fire worshipers, they replied: "No one can dislodge us from this Faith; neither angels nor men, not even the fire or the sword or any horrible torture . . . your sword and our necks."

[Porterville]

Not frusrated, just really, really curious, I was told I was wrong about Oklahoma City when that happened too... but I still believe my gut.

[hotpotato]

LOL I wondered the same thing. Sounds like he's insane. For more than one reason.

[faithincowboys]

I am doubtful he is a Christian. He is either a convert or a Muslim by birth. These fires are calculated acts of terror. We know Al Qaeda had drawn up plans like this. The coincidences are too much.

[RandallFlagg]

Well, they released the pic of the woman who started that big fire here in Colorado last summer right away. They have no real reason not to show the public what this guy looks like, unless....

[cajun-jack]

if "it" is running, he probably needs to get a shot of penicillan

[hotpotato]

I hope they prosecute it as a terror crime. If they do that, it won't be necessary for him to have destroyed a lot of property. Just the intent will get him locked away for a long time.