Blowtorch-wielding man sets customers’ hair ablaze at boba shop, California cops say

A man armed with a hatchet and blowtorch was arrested after police said he tried to light customers’ hair on fire in a California boba tea shop.

Berkeley police responded to a report of a man trying to light multiple people on fire Monday evening, according to a news release.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s office charged Brandon McGlone, 46, in the case, police said.

McGlone approached two people outside a pizza restaurant and said he was going to set them on fire before spraying them with WD-40, a flammable substance that can be used as a cleaner or lubricant, police said. The two “were able to escape.”

McGlone then sprayed two people outside Feng Cha Teahouse, igniting their hair, according to police.

“He said something right before he sprayed, and it was kind of like an evil chuckle,” a witness who was at Feng Cha, told CBS San Francisco.

The witness reportedly told the TV station that she was in line at the tea shop when McGlone chased people into the store and set a fire with a blowtorch.

“Once he ignited it, it just burst out into flames,” Noel Nubla, who was sprayed with WD-40, told the station.

Bystanders put out the fire while other people tried to subdue McGlone, who was armed with a hatchet, Berkeley police said.

Officers convinced McGlone to drop the hatchet, police said, and upon searching him they found knives, a machete, lighters, matches, and “Molotov cocktails.”

McGlone was charged with arson, criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon, “throwing a flammable substance on another,” and “possession of destructive devices and other charges,” according to police.