Arson at Ontario Mills — Suspect in Custody
By Ryan Jackson
On Apr. 10th, just before 11a.m., a man was arrested after allegedly starting a fire inside a True Religion at the Ontario Mills in Ontario, Calif.
Police and firefighters responded to multiple reports of fires being started inside the mall. Videos show a fire fuming inside the True Religion store.
A video recorded by @littlemissdiva17 on Tik Tok shows a raging fire as customers subdue the arsonist and police respond to the scene. The next clip of the video shows the police making the arrest.
Onsite officers located the man in True Religion and arrested him with the help of nearby customers. The suspect in custody is Luis Javier Gallegos Jr., a 28 year old resident from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. The motive for the fire remains under investigation.
A separate video recorded by @smokingraysbackyardbbq on TikTok shows the store filled with smoke, as the fire blazes inside.
Detective Eliseo Guerrero from the Ontario police department said that, "there is no active threat here at the Mills right now. We do ask the public to stay out of the area for now," at a press conference following the incident.
That same afternoon, Scot Roeber - the battalion chief of the Ontario Fire Department - stated, "first arriving companies found multiple fires in multiple locations in the same vicinity. All of those fires were suspicious, and all of those fires have been extinguished," which confirms there were fires in multiple stores inside the Mills
This fire takes place only four days after the Kimberly-Clark warehouse was set on fire by an employee — only 9 miles away.
The incident forced a closure of the mall. Visitors and employees were asked to evacuate the property until further notice. No injuries were reported.