Neighbor’s Fire Sighting Helped ID Wildfire Suspect

A Washington man’s quick look at a stranger near railroad tracks helped police identify an accused wildfire arsonist in the hours before flames spread close to his home. Paul Child said he saw the man twice near the tracks outside his Washington residence, then noticed smoke rise about 10 minutes after the man crouched in bushes nearby. That account set off a police response that ended with a field showup and the later identification of Aaron Forrest Farinacci.

Newly obtained body camera video shows officers evacuating Child’s family and taking him, his grandson and the boy’s friend to the roadside identification. While they waited, an officer can be heard saying the detained man had “a whole fanny pack full of matches.” The video does not show the items or explain how police recovered them. Child said the witnesses were not told about any alleged matches or other items before they were asked to view the detained man. “We thought he had a backpack,” Child told Fox News Digital. “They didn’t say anything to us anyway about the fanny pack with matches, cigarettes [and] I guess lighter in it.”

Child said the man’s behavior stood out the second time the group saw him near the railroad tracks close to the apparent fire origin. He said the stranger was bent over in the bushes, then turned and paced nervously after spotting them. At that point, Child said, there was no smoke. Within about 10 minutes of the family returning home, smoke was rising about a half-mile away. Officers later told the family they may have detained “your guy,” and Pace took Child and the two boys to a location about a mile and a half from the home for what police call a field showup, a live identification procedure used shortly after an incident.

Child said the three witnesses gave what they believed was a positive identification of the man pulled from a Spokane County deputy car. Authorities later identified him as Aaron Forrest Farinacci. The Aug. 1 field showup did not immediately lead to charges. Farinacci was released after the identification and was arrested two days later, on Aug. 3. Child said he had not realized the man had been freed. He said he assumed police had held him the whole time, and added that he worried the man could have returned to the same road.