Photo: Subaru
A domestic incident could have ended tragically for both partners in North Pole, Alaska, after the man set fire to the car his girlfriend was driving, with himself inside.
According to the police affidavit obtained by the NewsMiner, 54-year-old Thomas Anthony Hernandez started the fire while his girlfriend was driving and he was in the backseat. When police arrived at the scene, firefighters had already put out the fire and the man was calmly waiting on the pavement for the officers to approach him.
He told them that his GF had offered to give him a ride to his brother’s place but, at some point during the journey, got into a verbal argument with a non-existent man in the backseat. Hernandez claimed not to know how the fire started, but he swore he personally took a can of gas from behind the driver’s seat and threw it out the window when he saw the flames, thus saving the woman’s life.
The woman told the police that Hernandez was anything but the hero in the story. Apparently, he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and he had an episode as they were driving to his brother’s house. Hernandez was in the backseat and, noticing that his girlfriend had taken a back road (to avoid construction work on the main one), assumed she was about to kill him.
“The woman said a small gas can on the back seat had spilled recently. She said Hernandez was trying to spark a lighter for a cigarette and was doing something behind her seat but that she couldn't see what he was doing,” the report notes. “Hernandez denied using a lighter and said he didn't know how the fire started, according to the complaint.”
The woman also told police she pulled over as soon as she could and walked away from the vehicle and Hernandez because she felt she was “going to kill (him) for destroying her car:” a 2010 Subaru Outback with 80,000 miles on it and no mechanical issues.
Hernandez was charged with arson, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
He told them that his GF had offered to give him a ride to his brother’s place but, at some point during the journey, got into a verbal argument with a non-existent man in the backseat. Hernandez claimed not to know how the fire started, but he swore he personally took a can of gas from behind the driver’s seat and threw it out the window when he saw the flames, thus saving the woman’s life.
The woman told the police that Hernandez was anything but the hero in the story. Apparently, he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and he had an episode as they were driving to his brother’s house. Hernandez was in the backseat and, noticing that his girlfriend had taken a back road (to avoid construction work on the main one), assumed she was about to kill him.
“The woman said a small gas can on the back seat had spilled recently. She said Hernandez was trying to spark a lighter for a cigarette and was doing something behind her seat but that she couldn't see what he was doing,” the report notes. “Hernandez denied using a lighter and said he didn't know how the fire started, according to the complaint.”
The woman also told police she pulled over as soon as she could and walked away from the vehicle and Hernandez because she felt she was “going to kill (him) for destroying her car:” a 2010 Subaru Outback with 80,000 miles on it and no mechanical issues.
Hernandez was charged with arson, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
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