Actor Brian J. White Detain Man With Blowtorch

According to White, his actions occurred not long after he and his family received an alert that they may have to evacuate, and he recalled to the outlet that he and his family “were just all very nervous that the fires were getting close,” when he heard commotion outside of his house.

“We were packing up, and all of a sudden, out front of our house, I hear screaming, ‘Put it down, put it down,’” White told Deadline. “I thought somebody had a gun and my neighbor was in duress, so my daughter went and hid in the closet, and I went running upstairs to go outside and help my neighbor.”

White and two of his neighbors eventually cornered a man with a blowtorch who had earlier attempted to set White’s trash on fire, and another resident in the neighborhood’s discarded Christmas tree on fire before being chased by a neighbor, who caught up with the man outside of White’s residence.

According to White, the man was behaving in an extremely erratic manner. Initially, the group was going to let the authorities handle it, as their wives had already called the police, but the man’s increasing aggressiveness forced their hands, according to White.

“Two of our neighbors work on cars in the garages; they had zip ties in one garage and little bit of rope in another garage. So we took him down, detained him, and waited for the police. Sixteen cruisers showed up within about seven minutes of us calling, and the rest is on the news,” White said.

Although the Los Angeles Police Department said in a press conference that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge the man with arson, they did charge him with felony probation violation instead, a conclusion that White and his neighbors dispute.

“The fires were approaching us from where that man had come from, so it was suspicious that the fires crept over close to his timing of being in our neighborhood with a blowtorch,” White noted.

White also briefly discussed how his roles portraying various roles of law enforcement officers potentially prepared him for the role he played in apprehending the suspect.

“It was more (the) hostage negotiating training. I’ve gone on a lot of police ride-alongs over the years, and one of the main things they talk about is staying calm and communicating,” White said. “So I was trying to clearly communicate to the gentleman that I don’t really care for an explanation. He’s standing on my property with an ignited blowtorch, so I’m just going to make sure that he waits until the police come.”

White continued, “We needed to find out if he had any weapons on him, if we were in danger. We tried to stay calm, and then when it got physical, we tried to make sure that it was quick, which is why we asked for other neighbors to help us with ropes and zip ties. So yeah, I am thankful for everybody that’s ever trained me in police work and fire work and fighting to be prepared for moments like that.”

White noted that the participation of his neighbors in the apprehension of the man, coupled with the fires in the area, has served to tighten the bonds of the neighborhood.

“Sometimes it takes tragedies and moments like this to bring communities together, because it takes a village to survive anything. And one of the things that it did was tighten our community, maybe 20 different houses from the immediate area all met in our cul-de-sac,” White said.

He concluded, “We are a family, that is our extended family. We all chose to live here, and this has made me keenly aware of that choice. I want to do everything I can to embrace my fellow members of my community and to know them and to help keep our community safe.”

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