Arson Suspect Still Considering Surrender

An attorney for Martin Pang, the man sought in a warehouse arson that killed four Seattle firefighters, said Tuesday night he still hopes to convince his client to surrender to authorities.

John Henry Browne refused to say whether Pang was in the United States or whether he had met with Pang during a vacation trip Browne made last week to Mexico.

He did say that his colleague, attorney Allen Ressler, had talked with Pang as recently as Friday, and that it is “certainly our intention” to have Pang turn himself in to answer a federal warrant that accuses him of interstate flight to avoid prosecution.

In the times Browne or Ressler have talked with Pang, “he has listened,” Browne said. He would not say whether Pang indicated he intended to turn himself in.

“I don’t think they’ve got a case against him,” Browne said of authorities who reportedly have linked Pang to the Jan. 5 fire that destroyed the Mary Pang Food Products warehouse near Seattle’s Kingdome.

Four firefighters died in that blaze, which authorities said was caused by a flammable liquid set afire by someone who knew the security code needed to open the warehouse’s doors.

Browne made his comments before he addressed a session of the People’s Law School, a layperson’s seminar on legal topics, on Bainbridge Island, the Seattle suburb where he lives.