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A man that is being identified by his beard and Hawaiian shirt is being praised after video was captured of him chasing down a man who appears to douse a vehicle in gasoline and set it on fire in Edmonton.
The incident took place on Friday night in the Whyte Avenue bar and restaurant district.
Ross Lockwood, who was skateboarding in the area with a friend at the time, filmed the incident after overhearing someone exclaim that a person had just set a car on fire.
“There was a man wearing dark clothing carrying a jerry can full of gasoline. He was pouring the gasoline onto and by cars — parked cars — but more worrying, he poured it onto the hood of an occupied vehicle,” said Lockwood, who posted his video of the incident on Reddit.
He said that the driver turned the corner and pulled over where people with fire extinguishers put out the flames.
In the video, the man appears to hold the jerry can towards people on the sidewalk.
“I think a lot of people recognized just how dangerous it is to try to intervene with someone who’s got a full can of gas and a lighter, and no one took real action until it was safe to do so, and that’s exactly what happened,” Lockwood said.
The video shows the man walk across the street, throwing the jerry can in the air and letting his backpack fall to the ground.
He then heads towards a Starbucks, but is quickly chased down by a burly man with a Hawaiian shirt and another man holding what appears to be a plank of wood.
The suspect was tackled to the ground in the coffee shop by the man with the red Hawaiian shirt. Lockwood says that several others stepped in to assist him and they held the suspect until police arrived.
Police confirmed that they responded to a report of a male pouring fuel onto multiple vehicles and setting them on fire. The man was taken into custody with the help of the civilian and charges are pending.
According to police, 13 vehicles were damaged but no one was hurt.
“I have no background for the man in the red shirt, but I just want to say thank you for the actions that you took on Friday night,” said Lockwood.
-With files from The Canadian Press.
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