SBPDPIO
Source: Santa Barbara Police Department
On October 21, 2021, around 9:20pm, the Santa Barbara Police Department received a report from an Amtrak employee about a subject that had just started a fire inside the Amtrak Station located at 209 State Street. The subject was still on scene and the employee reporting the incident provided a description of the individual to dispatchers.
Santa Barbara Police Officers, Santa Barbara City Fire Department, and Amtrak Police responded to the reported fire. Santa Barbara Police Officers and Amtrak Police Officers arrived on scene and the subject that started the fire was identified by an Amtrak employee. Officers immediately noticed a strong smell of smoke coming from the lobby of the Amtrak Station. It appeared the subject had used newspapers to start a fire in the non-operable fireplace located inside the passenger waiting area. An Amtrak employee used a fire extinguisher to put the flames out before the fire could spread.
The subject was identified as Lonniel Morgan, a 63-year-old transient. Morgan had just come to Santa Barbara on a previous Amtrak train earlier that morning.
A witness who observed this incident stated they observed Morgan standing in front of the fire and appeared to be warming himself. There were numerous passengers in the lobby when smoke started billowing out of the non-operable fireplace and filling the station before being extinguished by an Amtrak employee. This witness also positively identified Morgan as the subject that started the fire.
Morgan was placed under arrest and booked in Santa Barbara County jail for Arson (felony), and Arson During a State of Emergency (felony). He is being held on $350,000 bail.
Seems like a pretty harsh penalty for lighting a fire in a fireplace. I bet he will learn his lesson and light his next fire outdoors
WOW. A guy with an illegal gun, arrested for road rage while USING that gun as a threat, is booked with $50K bail. Light a fire in a fire place on a cold October night and gets 7x that.
ok….and your point is?
this is way too harsh and i hope this is thrown out. cmon…the guy was cold. it was a fire place. all of the charges are ridiculous. a felon for being cold.
if anyone should have been let go, it’s this guy. give him a 1 way ticket to santa maria.
CHIP and I never agree…but we certainly agree here….
I’m quite sure that was a working fireplace originally when the building was built. Whose decision was it during the very expensive renovation to remove that functionality?
SB’s political leaders have rolled out the red carpet for these types, so … you know the old saying, “you reap what you sow”. Can’t wait to see how the SB voters vote here in a week and a half. Ultimately it’s up to voters to decide if they will tolerate these kinds of crimes happening daily in their city while they’re paying for it.
A freaking accused child rapist is only being held on $200K bail! This is absurd! Dudley is a joke.
https://keyt.com/lifestyle/community/2021/10/22/lompoc-man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-multiple-child-sex-crimes/
Quasi federal property? Arson is a first level felony.
he got off the train too early. He could have gone to Seattle and burned as many federal buildings as he wanted to without consequence
domestic terrorists? oh you mean the right wing groups like the proud boys and boogaloos that are going to the NW to counter protest and start fights and riots and pretend they are cops and army guys? yeah i’d certainly consider them domestic terrorists.
2:04 PM – Wow. Just wow. Delusional doesn’t even begin to describe your rambling.
Because this is real.
But I was told the homeless trouble makers were always homegrown and they just couldn’t afford housing here?!?! Surely this cannot be true!
BYZ – if you hate your tax dollars going to help your fellow human beings, stop paying them. By all means, stop paying taxes or move to another country.
Seattle, where the are actually domestic terrorists (vs. those scary and angry parents and school board meetings). https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/spd-rioters-tried-trap-officers-inside-burning-precinct-using-rebar-concrete/5AERWGBGYJE7DC6CLW3PEKKAEE/
CDBG dollars are intended to reduce blight; not increase it. They are actually intended to gentrify blighted neighborhoods in order to see property tax revenues increase. And all we get is the demand for more police expense in our CDBP projects? Let’s learn more about this one-way drain on our tax dollars.
10:52 – don’t forget the “protesters” that tried to “Hang Mike Pence!” or their buddies who planted pipe bombs around the US Capitol building.