HOUSTON – Authorities are still looking for the person who is accused of setting a sleeping woman on fire and leaving her to burn, but a nearby store owner said the woman bought lighter fluid about 20 minutes before the fire started.
Police said the incident happened around 11 p.m. Tuesday at a strip center in southwest Houston near South Kirkwood Road and High Star Drive.
John Won, a convenience store owner, said he sold the woman a bottle of lighter fluid.
“Twenty minutes later, I heard screams coming from the parking lot,” Won said.
Officers said the woman, 40, told them she was asleep in the parking lot of the strip center when someone came up to her, poured an accelerant on her and a lit her on fire.
Won was one of three witnesses who rushed over, dragged her away from the fire and extinguished it, but not before the woman became engulfed in the fire, authorities said.
“I threw my jacket over her. She was crying and said, 'Thank you,'” Won said.
Part of the incident was caught on surveillance video.
The woman suffered severe burns and was transported to Memorial Hermann Medical Center, where she is being treated. Officers said the woman is in critical condition.
Investigators will be reviewing surveillance footage from a nearby church in an effort to find any clues that could lead to an arrest.
Pastor Dele Odeseye preaches at the Celestial Church on Kirkwood road. Overnight Odeseye received a KPRC2 News Alert about the 40-year-old woman burned outside his church.
"It's barbaric, I did not witness it, but that’s not a good thing to be doing in the year 2019," said Odeseye. "That's really out your mind, you're not supposed be in society. This is ridiculous I wish the lady that got ignited ... I wish her happy recovery and god bless her heart," said Odeseye.
KPRC2 reporter Vincent Crivelli spoke with another pastor at a different church next door.
"I have been here a long time and I have never seen this before," said the other pastor. He showed us a security system which records video offsite. He hopes it will give investigators the clues they need to arrest the person behind this brutal attack.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.