May 29--Federal agents and local police descended late Thursday afternoon on the South Los Angeles home of a man charged with setting fire to a downtown L.A. apartment building in a blaze that caused millions of dollars in damage.
Law enforcement officers wore blue gloves as they searched a back room that Dawud Abdulwali rented at the home in the 200 block of East 73rd Street.
Mike Hoffman -- a group supervisor with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- said agents were executing a search warrant and looking for anything related to last year's fire that destroyed the half-built Da Vinci Apartment complex building. The South L.A. home, Hoffman said, was Abdulwali's last known address.
Earlier in the afternoon, Abdulwali, 56, appeared in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom and pleaded not guilty to aggravated arson and arson of a structure.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Sean Carney urged a judge at the arraignment to set a high bail, saying Abdulwali had served two prison stints and had a lengthy criminal history that included theft, fraud, battery and assault. Abdulwali, the prosecutor said, should still be on probation from a 2013 battery conviction out of Inglewood.
"He's not just a flight risk, he's a danger to the community," Carney told Superior Court Judge Sergio C. Tapia II at the hearing. "This isn't your normal arson."
Abdulwali's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Mearl Lottman, urged the judge to set a lower bail, arguing that any flight risk could be dealt with by confiscating Abdulwali's passport.
Abdulwali, wearing a black T-shirt and shorts, stayed mostly silent during the hearing.
The judge set his bail at $1 million and ordered him to surrender his passport if he posts bond.
Prosecutors allege Abdulwali started the fire with some type of accelerent on the fourth floor of the seven-story Da Vinci complex. No injuries were reported, but the fire gutted the half-built structure and damaged a nearby city building.
If convicted, prosecutors said, Abdulwali faces up to life in prison.
Abdulwali was arrested Tuesday on a traffic violation and later booked on suspicion of arson. At a news conference Wednesday, officials declined to say how investigators homed in on Abdulwali but described him as their sole suspect in the Dec. 8 blaze.
The arrest capped an intense investigation that began even before the fire was fully extinguished. The speed of the blaze, which broke out about 1:20 a.m. and soon engulfed most of the wooden structure, raised suspicion from the onset.
Flames shot several stories into the air and sent up a massive plume of smoke that could be seen across the city. The heat from the fire also damaged signs on the nearby 110 Freeway.
Officials said the fire caused between $20 million and $30 million in damage to the Da Vinci complex and more than $50 million in damage to the nearby building.
UPDATE
5:33 p.m: This post was updated to include information about law enforcement agents searching Abdulwali's home.
3:16 p.m.: This post was updated to include Abdulwali's plea and details from his afternoon arraignment.
This post was first published at 10:42 a.m.
