Rancho Cucamonga resident arrested for setting multiple fires inside Ontario Mills mall

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 07:34:00 +0200

Ontario police arrested a 28-year-old man, Luis Javier Gallegos Jr. of Rancho Cucamonga, on Friday morning after several fires were deliberately set inside stores at the Ontario Mills mall. The incident took place around 10:30 a.m. when witnesses saw Gallegos carrying a lighter and a backpack, allegedly starting fires inside the shopping complex. Officers confronted Gallegos, but he reportedly refused to comply with their orders, leading to the use of force during his arrest. Both the suspect and one officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were treated at a hospital. Gallegos was later booked at the West Valley Detention Center on felony arson charges. Authorities are still investigating the motive behind the crime and whether it is linked to an earlier warehouse fire that occurred on April 7 at the Kimberly-Clark facility in Ontario, which caused about $500 million in damages. That separate arson case involves another suspect, 29-year-old Chamel Abdulkarim, accused of inte