WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A woman was severely burned Monday after being doused in gasoline and lit on fire outside a 7-Eleven store in South Florida in a dispute with the father of her child, police said.
The 34-year-old woman was waiting in her silver Mercedes at the store shortly before 3 a.m., Boynton Beach Police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said. She was meeting her ex to pick up her 4-year-old son for whom they share custody.
Roosevelt Mondesir, 52, arrived in his white Jaguar without the boy and began throwing gasoline on the unidentified woman's car and body, according to a police affidavit. She tried to run away, but police said the man chased her with a knife and then ignited her.
In graphic surveillance video, a man can be seen threatening a woman with a large knife, struggling in the doorway of the store. "Get away from me!" she can be heard shouting.
They disappear from view until she returns in a massive fireball, screaming and running around the parking lot.
Officers searched by foot, with a police dog, and by helicopter before finding Mondesir several hours later in bushes near the 7-Eleven. He was charged with attempted first-degree murder and was being treated for burns at Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach before being transferred to jail.
It was not known if he had yet obtained an attorney.
The victim was not identified, but she is expected to survive. She was being treated at Delray Medical Center.
Police haven't said what led to the attack.
