Imagine this if you will…
You are leaving a convenience store…
A homeless man/woman asks you if you have a couple of dollars to spare…
You have just spent your last dollar and you tell him, ‘I’m sorry but I can’t’…
You turn your back and *poof*, you’re on fire…
Well that’s what happened to a 63 year-old Long Beach, California resident Friday night…
Meet 38 year-old A**hole of the Week, Raymond Sean Clark, also of Long Beach, California.
Around 5:08pm April his local transient was panhandling at the local 7-Eleven on the 5100 block Pacific Coast Highway and Clark Avenue in Long Beach.
At the same time, 63 year-old Jerry Arnold Payne, who lived a few blocks away on Anaheim Place, often frequented the store and was known to help out the homeless, was leaving the 7-Eleven.
As Payne walked pass the Clark, the transient asked the 63 year-old for some spare change. The 63 year-old told Clark he couldn’t spare any change and proceeded to get into his SUV.
Apparently Clark saw this as some form of disrespect, because Clark proceeded to enforce his own form of ‘street’ justice by throwing a flammable liquid into the SUV and set it aflame.
Shocked, Payne leapt from the SUV as bystanders ran to help douse the flames.
NBC Bay Area reports this:
After running from the 7-11 near Pacific Coast Highway, a 39-year-old man known by many in the area to be homeless was arrested in connection with the attack.
Witnesses used fire extinguishers and water bottles to help extinguish the flames, which consumed the victim as he stumbled from the SUV.
A white sedan was parked next to the SUV. The driver of that car was inside the 7-11 getting a cup of coffee when his car also caught fire.
A white sedan was parked next to the SUV. The driver of that car was inside the 7-11 getting a cup of coffee when his car also caught fire.
Steve Cox said he gave spare change to the alleged attacker minutes before the fire.
“He didn’t seem like he was going to harm anybody. He wasn’t very aggressive or anything. I mean, asking for change, he seemed like a nice guy,” Cox said. “I’m really surprised about what happened. It’s outrageous.”
Outrageous doesn’t even begin to describe this one!
This is one of those times that I wish that the US had an ‘Eye for an Eye’ justice system…
With so much evil happening in the world, we can’t afford to be scared of the homeless too!
Payne is currently being treated at Torrance Memorial Hospital, which specializes in treating burn patients. His condition is described as critical.
Clark is being held on a $502,200 bail under charges of attempted murder and two misdemeanor failure to appear warrants.
Needless to say…Clark is no longer homeless…
Read more here.