Did you see how badly burned the truck was? The tires were melted and not much was left but a shell, you can’t do that by striking a match and throwing it in the cab, especially in that cold weather, not easy to do. He had to have planned that. Having a car and fleeing would be very difficult, paying everything in cash, trying to hide your identity with your picutre all over the news? If he did not have a car then that would be even harder to elude the manhunt up in that environment. Either way he is really pissing the LAPD and others off.