Posted on 02/27/2009 8:17:19 AM PST by KeyLargo
Man dies after setting himself on fire outside Wal-Mart
February 27, 2009
Sun-Times News Group
A 58-year-old Wal-Mart employee set himself on fire Thursday night outside the west suburban store where he worked and later died of his injuries.
“I can’t take it anymore,” the man told a police officer on the scene, said Randy Sater, a watch commander with the Bloomingdale Police Department.
“People tried to help this guy but he didn’t want any part of it,” Sater said. “His motive was he wanted to die. It’s just tragic.”
Sater said the man used lighter fluid to set himself on fire near a sporting goods store that is adjacent to the Wal-Mart where he worked, 314 West Army Trail Rd. His car was found in the parking lot.
Police were called about 10 p.m. The man worked the overnight shift at the store, Sater said.
Sater said a crowd of about 10 people, mostly teenagers leaving nearby chain restaurants, tried to help, offering their coats so he could put out the fire. He told them he didn’t want any help.
The man’s family, who lives in Carol Stream, were notified, Sater said. The man was first taken to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove and then transported to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
He was pronounced dead there at 12:42 a.m., the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office reported.
Sater said this incident was something that was going to stay with witnesses for a long time.
“I can’t even put it into words for somebody taking their life in this fashion,” he said. “The pain, it’s just incredible.”
Actually, taking your life in a gruesome way is considered a classic hostile act. It’s a way of punishing your survivors, as well as society (in the form of people who happen to be present), and saying “see what you made me do?”
I don’t know what triggered it in this case, but he was probably one of those people who had fantasized for a long time about doing something ghastly like this as a sort of parting gesture of anger and self-pity.
Build a man a fire, and he will be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
I know, I know...but I can only do it once
Terminal passive-aggression?
Not only that, Bama's gonna charge him a carbon tax
“how is it humanly possible for someone to catch themselves on fire!”....
Once the clothes starts burning, there is plenty of oxygen to keep it going if no one smothers him fast with a blanket or whatever,he’s dead.
There was a story here in Indy this week about a young girl that had head lice. She put gasoline on her hair and set in on fire to get rid of the lice. Last I heard she was in a coma.
Duh, she could have just shaved her head. Geesh
Interesting you say that. This Wal-Mart in the story is about 7 miles from my home and I have shopped there a number of times. There is a good size Indian sub-continent emigrant population in that area. Of course, its still Bush/wal-mart's fault.
She didn’t intentionally light it up, there was a spark from the water heater or furnace.
If he bought the lighter fluid at Walmart, at least he didn’t overpay. The family will now file a 500 million dollar suit against Walmart for selling it to him. Obviously the store should have known his plans! Shysters will be lining up for this one.
It’s a human torch!!!
Brought to you by Darwin.
Last seen walking around saying, anyone have a match?
but because the pain is spread across your body your nervous system
completely shuts down and you feel almost nothing.
I can't answer in the haiku form, but this is completely untrue. If you could ask people who have suffered 80% burns and are dying, they would tell you that the nervous system does not shut down and it is very far from painless. Quite often they beg for death after they are rescued and are treated, because the pain is past bearing.
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The guy must have thought, 'Hey, in the movie the girls thought he was sexy!" |
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