A still image taken from a security camera and distributed by the Los Angeles Police Department on January 1, 2012, shows a male in his late twenties to early thirties, dressed in black, who police have identified as a person of interest involved in a spate of arson attacks in Burbank, Los Angeles and West Hollywood.
LAPD / Reuters
The fires that terrorized Los Angeles as the old year ended and the new one began may have lurked on Sunset Boulevard, in a second-story apartment where Harry Burkhart lived above a Hollywood salon called Le Figaro. His mother Dorothee was staying with him, having first flown into Las Vegas from Germany, where she lived and where she was wanted for fraud. Have the sins of the mother been visited upon the son? Harry, 24, is now the only suspect in the 52-incident arson spree that saw the torching of cars and parking lots and buildings in Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley.
Until then, his neighbors on Sunset had thought him unremarkable. He wore a ponytail, liked rock music and Subway sandwiches and was curious about Middle East politics, according to Shlomo Elady, 44, an Israeli hairstylist at Le Figaro who cut his hair. Burkhard spoke German and English and also Russian, which he used to converse with his mother. Elady knew, however, that Burkhart was aggravated by a problem involving his mother. "He was upset by the issue with his mom." (See "Arson Mystery: Who Is Setting Los Angeles on Fire?")
The issue with Dorothee apparently began in the previous decade in Germany where, according to a U.S. federal document, Dorothee Burkhart allegedly committed 19 acts of fraud between 2000 and 2006 "on a commercial basis and as a member of a gang." Her charges include allegedly not paying for a 7,680 euro breast augmentation surgery in 2004. According to the complaint filed on Dec. 19, 2011 by L.A. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cathy Ostiller at the request of the German government, Burhkart falsely told the clinic she had made an advance payment for the surgery through a bank transfer, but "did not have any intention of paying for the surgery." The document also lists a slew of cases adding up to some 35,000 euros in alleged embezzlement against apartment renters and landlords in Frankfurt am Main.
Harry's mother was arrested in Los Angeles on Dec. 29 and, during the ensuing hearing in federal court that day, he apparently erupted in anger and had to be escorted from the building. "He had an outburst that involved some profanities and was screaming," says Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. A few hours later, the fires began. Many residents were forced to evacuate their homes, and the sound of sirens and helicopters was omnipresent in the Hollywood area for four days. There were no fatalities, but damages are estimated at around $3 million. (PHOTOS: The 1991 Oakland-Berkeley Fire Revisited)
After a video including images of an alleged perpetrator was released to the public, a reserve sheriff's deputy arrested Burkhart in his van early on the morning of Jan. 2 on Sunset Boulevard. The next day, Dorothee appeared in court but appeared perplexed by the absence of her son. She seemed to be worried, indicating that he was mentally ill, according to Mrozek. He was booked on one count of arson, and authorities expect he will face additional charges as the investigation progresses. They believe that Burkhart acted alone but are not ruling out the possibility that some of the acts of arson were perpetrated by copy-cats. The string of fires has since come to a halt.
"I didn't see any sign of anger or depression," says Elady who felt he had come to know Burkhart well after giving him $20 haircuts more ore less every three weeks. He wishes Burkhart had sought help. "He risked lives. Why didn't he tell me something?"
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