BOYNTON BEACH, FL - We have had a couple stories this week detailing someone setting someone else on fire–one in Alaska another in Ohio–and now we have another out of Florida. The difference with this one is that it was all caught on video.
A woman was meeting 54-year-old Roosevelt Mondesir at a gas station so that they could exchange their 4-year-old son. The two are not married, but do share custody of their son. But when Mondesir arrives in his white Jaguar, he does not have their son with him. He does have some gasoline, however, and proceeds to pour it on the woman and her vehicle as she tries to leave.
The gas station surveillance cameras captures this, as well as the 34-year-old woman’s futile attempts to get away from Mondesir and try to find help inside the convenience store. She doesn’t find any and the relentless Mondesir is able to set her on fire. Video footage captures the horrific image of the woman on fire as she first tries to enter the store for help, and then as she runs around the parking lot trying to put out the flames.
The employees inside the store had already called 911 and where on the phone with a dispatcher when the woman got on the line pleading for help.
“I just called, and I had to hang up. He set me on fire, OK?” the victim said. “Hurry up, please, please, please. It burns.”
When officers arrived at the scene, they found the woman “with severe and fresh burns” on her body and face, as well as pieces of her clothing burning on the ground. She was taken to the hospital suffering from from severe burns to much of her body and face. She was last listed in fair condition and is expected to survive.
Roosevelt Mondesir had fled the scene on foot before police arrived, but was found hiding in some nearby bushes. He was treated for burns before being booked into Palm Beach County’s main detention center on a charge of attempted murder.
Tags: Attempted Murder, Burning, Crime, fire, Florida, gas, Roosevelt Mondesir
