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Tow truck driver set on fire
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - A tow truck driver was set on fire by two men who flagged down his vehicle, doused him in a flammable substance and flicked a lighted cigarette on him, state police said.
Police said they were not releasing the driver’s name for fear of his safety, but he is a 45-year-old Reisterstown man who owns and operates his own tow truck.
He was released Wednesday from a local hospital after being treated for severe burns to his face, arms and hands; police would not release the name of the hospital.
Police were called to the hospital about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, and the driver told them he was traveling northbound on Interstate 695 near Pulaski Highway about 11 p.m. Monday when he saw two men on the shoulder of the road in a red Ford Escort waving him down to stop.
The driver told police he got out of his tow truck to help the men and told them he would charge $50 to tow the vehicle.
He told police the men then asked how much money he had on him, and he told them he had $65.
At that point, police said, one man threw an unknown flammable substance on the tow truck driver, and the other man threw a lighted cigarette on him, causing his shirt to ignite.
One of the men appeared to be a teenager, police said.
“Once the suspects fled, he got back into his tow truck and drove home, but the pain started to get to him so much that he had to call an ambulance to come and get him,” said Elena Russo-Wendell, state police spokeswoman.
Russo-Wendell said the men are wanted for attempted first-degree murder.
cpeirce@baltimoreexaminer.com
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Reader of the Examiner said:
Let Tommy do the talking...and it gets back to the wrong people...it will just incite more angry people. Believe me the "potluck" dinners at residents' home don't compare to the fast-food conversations on the corners. It is not like the criminal element is sitting in the park...making plans to harm people...these are removed and relocated folks who remember when...and then get riled-up over the rhetoric. Then they return with a negative reaction...I know from first hand experience...when I heard a teacher tell a group of her students with tears in her eyes that "whites" are taking over the city and your school will disown you. Well, lo and behold the phase out plan was revealed for the high-school and the "told you so choir" started singing. Back to the tears of the teachers it was enough to rally some type of anger in the youths..If you think that tears don't work...we all remember when Hillary shed'em and what was the immediate action after...I rest my case. Are you angry ye
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Examiner Reader said:
Our system has become a revolving door for criminals who get arrested, a slap on the wrist, and sent home to repeat crimes again and again. These men, regardless of age, should never see the light of day again. They should spend the rest of their lives in prison even though they deserve much worse.
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shearl said:
its really ashame that mens can touch somehting in this world that dosen,t belong to them. now let that been a woman had done this crime to a man she will be faciong a hellof lot more charging then that, more like 1st degree murder. who give them te right to do that to her she could have been the next president of the united states or been that first person to cure aids or cancer .that child will never get back her precious life she had before or for that matter look at it the same. those mens private part should be cut off put in a glass jar and put on a shelves so they would have to look at it an hour everyday on the remeberce of what thay did.
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Examiner Reader said:
Mr. Santoni and Hartford County Sheriff, I think you both need to learn how a real Chinese Chef holding a "meat cleaver" is more than normal. I hold a knife and argue with my husband all the time in the kitchen, does that mean I should be charge with first-degree assault? If a white man holding a knife and starts arguing with another employee and the witness who is also white and understood the whole argument in ENGLISH, will the witness call the police? or will the witness just mind his/her own business? Was the other person injured? Not according to your article? I think before you write this article you should question the witness whether the the man holding the knife or as you mention in your article "brandishing a knife" meant killing the other employee or the witness was simply a racist and somewhat backslashing all ASIAN in general because of the Virginia Masacre, also and did not understood what the two asian men were arguing in CHINESE! Is that why the witness called 911?
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Examiner Reader said:
Please I need to know updates on Michael j Francis.....That's my nephew...I just want to know more updates thank you!
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