mr40, Sonoma sheriff shoots down right-wing reports linking arson suspect to wine country fires
By Ryan Sabalow October 17, 2017 12:35 PM
The arrest of a 29-year-old Latino man this weekend on suspicion of starting a small fire in California’s scorched wine country ignited a firestorm of its own on right-wing media sites whose articles linked him – without evidence – to the catastrophic fires that have killed at least 28 people in the area.
Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano forcefully shot down the allegations at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
“There is a story out there that he’s the arsonist in these fires,” Giordano said. “That’s not the case. There’s no indication he’s related to these fires at all. ... I wanted to kill that speculation right now, so we didn’t have things running too far out of control.”