Police hunt man over Christmas day car firebombing
Assistant Commissioner Gilbert asks for help finding John Argento, offers reassurance to the Jewish community
Victoria Police have launched a public appeal to locate a 47-year-old man wanted for questioning over the firebombing of a car displaying a Chanukah mobile billboard outside a Jewish family home in St Kilda East on Christmas Day.
Assistant Commissioner Chris Gilbert told a media briefing at Caulfield Police Station on Thursday that investigators had identified John Argento as a person of interest in the incident.
“He’s a 47-year-old man of no fixed place of abode,” Gilbert said.
“At this stage, we do understand that he has had residences across Melbourne in different areas, but at the moment, we’re unable to determine exactly where he is, and he may, in fact, be even rough sleeping, but certainly moving from place to place.”
Argento is described as approximately 195 centimetres tall, of thin build with grey hair and possibly a grey beard. He is known to frequent the St Kilda, East St Kilda and Caulfield areas, but may be in other parts of Melbourne.
The car was set alight in the driveway of a property on Balaclava Road at approximately 2.50am on Thursday. Residents, including young children, were evacuated from the home.
“Fortunately, no one was injured during that incident, but our investigators had very quickly mobilised, and as a result of that, we identified [a] person of interest that we would like to speak to,” Gilbert said.
Police are also investigating a possible link to a theft from a motor vehicle in nearby streets that occurred after the car fire.
Argento is wanted on an outstanding warrant for use of a stolen credit card and may have been involved in other property offences.
When asked whether the car fire was racially or religiously motivated, Gilbert said police were not ruling anything out.
“Right now we’ve got everything on the table, so we’re not going to take those issues off the table at all, and until we actually speak with him and we understand what the motivations were, then we will bring that to a close,” he said.
“Our responsibility at this stage is to make sure that we don’t take anything off the table. We look at it, and certainly if it was racially or religiously motivated, we will follow that angle. And if it’s not, then we’ll sort out the matters as they are.”
Gilbert said police understand Argento has a history that includes property offences and lighting fires.
The incident has heightened fear within Melbourne’s Jewish community, coming less than a week after the Bondi terror attack and following two synagogue fire bombings.
Gilbert said police had met with the affected family to reassure them of their safety.
“There’s no doubt that they are a family who is now in fear,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for many, many months, particularly since the end of 2023. We are visiting families who’ve been victims. We have sat with grieving families since Bondi.”
He stressed there were no specific threats to the Jewish community but acknowledged their concerns.
“We know that the Jewish community certainly wasn’t feeling safe after Bondi, maybe more so,” Gilbert said. “Since the events in Bondi, we have certainly escalated our response, whether it was in the city, whether it’s in this area and right across the state.”
“We have their backs. We are here to support them as we are right across the community, for everybody, for community safety, but our commitment to the Jewish community here is quite strong.”
Gilbert said police had substantial resources deployed across the area, including officers working on Operation Trinity and Operation Park, uniform members, detectives and the Public Order Response Team.
He emphasised the danger posed by the car fire, regardless of motivation.
“Fires get out of control, and even though it was a car fire, it was too close to buildings. It’s too close to people in buildings. It’s incredibly dangerous behaviour, and it’s not something you want to see anytime,” he said.
Police are urging anyone who sees Argento to contact triple zero immediately, or to provide information to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or at the Crimestoppers website.
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