The man federally charged with causing the devastating 2025 Palisades fire had multiple run-ins with police for traffic and car-related issues in the months prior to his federal arrest.
According to newly released body camera footage obtained by Scripps News, Palm Bay police twice pulled over Jonathan Rinderknecht for speeding in Florida in August and September.
They also confronted him once in August after a caller said his vehicle seemed suspicious, stalled along a dirt road.
August 2, 2025
An officer pulled over Rinderknecht on Aug. 2 for driving 71 mph in a 45 mph zone. Rinderknecht received a $284 citation.
“There’s no way I’m going 71,” Rinderknecht told the officer. “I’m literally, like, working right now,” he said from behind the wheel of his car.
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Rinderknecht told the officer he was making deliveries and did not believe his car was moving that fast. “They track all my statistics and data. If I’m speeding to that extent, I’m not going to get any work.”
The officer eventually asked Rinderknecht to step out of the vehicle.
“The way you’re acting, I’m starting to be concerned about you being on something, possibly,” the officer said during the traffic stop. The officer said he could see a few unmarked pill bottles in the car with medication inside them.
“That’s a lot of prescription bottles with no labels on them,’ the officer said. Rinderknecht said one of the pill bottles contained Trazodone, a medication that helped him go to sleep.
He told the officer he takes it 10 minutes before he gets home.
“It allows me to get home and be tired already if that makes sense, right? So, I can work as much as I can,” he said.
“So, you’re taking something that makes you tired while you’re driving that you shouldn’t take while you’re driving,” the officer asked. “No, ‘cause it takes like 30 minutes to like, react,” Rinderknecht responded.
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The officer inspected the pills and later instructed Rinderknecht to keep them in a bottle with a label on it.
“You cannot be driving around with this many pills in unlabeled bottles. It’s going to cause a problem for you,” the officer said.
He told Rinderknecht he could fight the citation for speeding in court.
August 12, 2025
Palm Bay police, who were investigating a suspicious vehicle, encountered Rinderknecht in a stalled car along a dirt road on Aug. 12 after someone called and said it appeared suspicious.
He told police he had been trying to make a delivery at least three hours earlier.
“They sent me on a road that’s actually a lot further back there to like, deliver to the address,” he said, explaining that his car was “acting out” because the road was “funny,” and “the battery is out.”
Police confirmed with him that a towing company was on its way to help move his car.
September 10, 2025
A Palm Bay police officer pulled over Rinderknecht for going 57mph in a 40mph zone on Sept. 10. He received a $134 citation.
West Melbourne, Florida, police, meanwhile, said its officers had documented three incidents involving Rinderknecht in September and October but because they were “part of an active investigation,” they were unable to provide details under the law.
According to the Associated Press, an ATF special agent testified during a federal hearing that police had been called a few times about Rinderknecht in September, including one incident in which he was accused of making threats to burn his sister’s home and another in which his father expressed concerns about Rinderknecht’s access to a firearm.
Arson charge related to Los Angeles wildfire
Rinderknecht was indicted last week by a grand jury on three criminal charges, including destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and timber set afire.
A criminal complaint said Rinderknecht called 911 to report a fire burning near a Pacific Palisades hiking trail in January 2025, which prosecutors say he set. That fire was quickly extinguished, but prosecutors said it continued to smolder underground and eventually erupted into the Palisades Fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.
Authorities said the fire destroyed more than 6,000 structures.
Officials said Rinderknecht later moved to Florida.
