Nicholas Kyle Oates pleads no contest, sentenced for seven years in prison
By Sam Catanzaro
A 27-year-old Missouri man pleaded no contest last week to setting a fire inside the Westfield Century City Mall last year, in an incident that police responded to as an active shooter and bomb threat situation.
On December 3, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced that 27-year-old Nicholas Kyle Oates entered the plea to one count each of arson and assault with a firearm and admitted an allegation of personally using a firearm.
Deputy District Attorney Joy Roberts of the Arson and Explosives Unit said Oates was immediately sentenced to seven years and four months in state prison.
On March 15, 2019, the defendant entered a book store at the mall, walked to the children’s section and set books on fire. An employee confronted Oates who then pulled out a handgun on the employee.
Oates then lit additional items in the store on fire and fled the scene, the prosecutor said. He was found and arrested a day later in Venice.
