ByJoe Faretra
US Audience Writer
13:09, 2 OCT 2023
Shop clerk Suraj tussled with Kendall Burton before his head was doused in lighter fluid leaving him in hospital with third-degree burns to his face, neck, chest, and shoulder
A serial shoplifter set fire to a store clerk’s head with stolen lighter fluid after he tried to stop the alleged thief from stealing.
Video obtained by CBS News shows employee Suraj tussling with Kendall Burton before Suraj’s head is doused in lighter fluid, on September 22 at the Appian Food and Liquor in El Sobrante. Another worker is seen rushing to Suraj’s rescue with a baseball bat seconds before flames engulf the clerk’s head after Burton lights the fluid in the Bay Area, California, US, store.
Suraj, who didn't want to reveal his surname out of fear of being targeted again said: "I tried to cover his hand, but I don’t know. I don’t remember. He just lit the fire on me you know. I just rushed to the restroom and I just splashed water on my face.”
In the five years Suraj has been working at the store he said that he and other workers at the Bay Area store deal with shoplifters regularly, but nothing to this magnitude has ever happened.
At the start of his shift co-workers had warned Suraj that Burton had been in the store multiple times that day to steal lighter fluid.
“He just splashed lighter fluid on my face, and I was so scared that moment,” Suraj added.
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Tags
#California