Witness describes rushing to help 2 people set on fire in northwest Oklahoma City
A neighbor witnessed the unimaginable while taking out the trash Tuesday morning.
A neighbor witnessed the unimaginable while taking out the trash Tuesday morning.
A neighbor witnessed the unimaginable while taking out the trash Tuesday morning.
Oklahoma City police are searching for a suspect who is believed to have poured a flammable substance on two people and set them on fire while they slept.
| ORIGINAL STORY | OKC police investigate whether 2 homeless people set on fire
A neighbor who witnessed the act ran to help the two people, who are without homes.
“I was taking trash to the curb and saw the young lady just from the waist up on fire. Stuff you see on TV. I never seen something like that in my life," Cory Spencer, who lives next door to the crime scene, said.
While taking out the trash on Tuesday morning, Spencer said saw two people on fire near West Hefner Road and Western Avenue. The woman was fully engulfed in flames when he found her.
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“I took and put her in the shower. She turned the shower on herself and then got the fire out. Came out and sat on the couch and asked for some water," Spencer said. “I never seen something like that in my life."
He said her skin was severely damaged when she came out of the shower.
The neighbor also ran to help pat out the flames on the man's legs and arms.
“He was screaming out, ‘Is my baby alright?'" Spencer said. “And I was putting out the fire on his legs and arms."
A cat grooming spa next door caught the plume of smoke on its surveillance cameras. The owner of the business said there is a homeless camp behind the building.
“That’s just shocking. Unfathomable," Allennia Voerster, the owner of Aristocats, said.
Spencer, who rushed outside to help the burning couple, said he can't process the horror that he saw.
“For somebody to do somebody like that, that’s cruel," Spencer said.
The Oklahoma City Police Department said they believe the two people experiencing homelessness were purposely set on fire. They also said the suspect may have poured on an accelerant while the man and woman slept.
An investigator on the scene told KOCO 5 that the woman is in critical condition and not expected to survive. The man is expected to live, but he could lose a limb.
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