Man who survived being set on fire at Clayton County gas station says lack of security led to attack

Tom Jones
·2 min read
2

A man says he was set on fire and left to die. All because he had a conversation with a woman who was with someone.

Larry Lane suffered burns over 75% of his body and spent months in the hospital.

He says the gas station where this happened needs to do a better job of protecting its customers.

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Lane told Channel 2′s Tom Jones he will never forget the moment he was set on fire.

“The feeling. The flames. The sound of the flames. It was sad,” he explained.

Jones asked him if he thought he was going to die.

“Oh definitely. Especially when I woke up,” he replied.

Lane was in a coma after he suffered burns over most of his body and spent seven months in Grady Memorial Hospital.

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Lane told Channel 2 Action News he ran out of gas that night in July last year. He said he put some gas in a bottle and as he walked back to his car, he saw a woman he knew at the BP gas station on Mount Zion Road just off I-75 in Clayton County.

They started talking.

“I guess whoever she was with, the guy who was over there, he woke up,” Lane recalled.

Lane said the man got out of his car and began punching the woman, then attacked him.

“The gas spilling everywhere. And then he looked at me and he just... He lit me up,” he said.

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“This could have easily been prevented if there was an armed security guard on the premises,” said Lane’s attorney, Reginald Greene.

Greene says he learned there had been 185 calls to 911 from the store in the two years before this attack.

“Including robberies, suspicious persons, demented persons,” he said.

Gas Express, which owns the gas station, told Channel 2 Action News it couldn’t comment right now.

Meanwhile, Lane says his body will never be the same. He’s still seeing doctors. His medical bills have reached $6 million.

“And the scary part is they haven’t found the guy,” he said.

Jones asked police for an update on the case. He asked if they had identified a suspect and been able to look at surveillance cameras to help with their investigation. A spokesperson said police would get back to him.

Lane’s attorney said he doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else and he is considering legal action.

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