The Latest: Los Angeles arson suspect ordered to stand trial

LOS ANGELES – The Latest on a man charged with setting a massive fire that destroyed an unfinished Los Angeles apartment complex (all times local):

3:10 p.m.

A man has been ordered to stand trial for arson over a fire that incinerated a Los Angeles apartment building and caused $100 million in damage.

Fifty-seven-year-old Dawud Abdulwali appeared in court Wednesday. He earlier pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Abdulwali set fire to the unfinished De Vinci complex downtown in December 2014. The seven-story complex was completely destroyed and the heat blew out windows at nearby office towers.

At Wednesday’s hearing, a witness testified that Abdulwali bragged at a party about burning the building and said he did it because he was angry about the police killing of an unarmed black man in Missouri.

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8:20 a.m.

A witness has testified that the man charged with sparking an inferno that destroyed an unfinished Los Angeles apartment building bragged about the blaze at a party and was angry about high-profile police killings of African-Americans.

The Los Angeles Times reports (http://lat.ms/1ZFflmB ) that the testimony came Tuesday during a preliminary hearing in the arson case against Dawud Abdulwali. The 57-year-old is accused of starting a 2014 fire that gutted a seven-story complex and damaged adjacent downtown office towers.

The witness, Popaul Tshimanga, says he and Abdulwali attended a party a week later. Tshimanga says Abdulwali ranted about the August 2014 killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

The witness testified that Abdulwali also said he burned the building.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/