Sonoma Sheriff Knocks Conservative Media for ‘Crazy’ Wildfire Arrest Reports

After several conservative media sites—including Breitbart News and InfoWars—tried to link the arrest of a Latino man to the catastrophic wildfires ravaging California’s Wine Country, Sonoma County’s sheriff slammed the dubious reports at late Tuesday a press conference. “There’s a story out there he’s the arsonist for these fires. That is not the case. There is no indication he is related to these fires at all,” Sheriff Rob Giordano said. “I just did want to kill that speculation right now so we didn’t have things running too far out of control.” The man, Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, was reportedly arrested Sunday on charges of arson that were not connected to the fires. Officials said they picked up Gonzalez, who often sleeps in a park, as he was walking away from a small fire he’d started to warm himself up. Breitbart and InfoWars showed no evidence linking him to the giant inferno, which has killed dozens of people. Sgt. Spencer Crum said this is the “first really crazy” rumor officials have dealt with so far.