DETROIT (WXYZ) — The Detroit Police Department is asking for the public's help to find an arson suspect who caused extensive damage to several vehicles.
Police video of explosion in arson case
The incident was caught on video on Thursday, August 15 at around 1:45 p.m. near the parking lot of the Post Office on Harper, near the intersection of Harper and Morang on the city's east side.
The suspect can be seen throwing an object at the passenger side window, breaking it. Police say he then poured an accelerant inside the vehicle and set it on fire. At that point, you can see an explosion slamming the suspect into the vehicle parked next to the white 2018 Chevy Traverse that was targeted.
The vehicle belonged to Tiffany Randall, a mail carrier and single mother of 3. She saw the video for the first time Monday and finally knows exactly what happened to her car.
"That’s terrible," Randall said as she watched the video. "It blew the trunk open and the side door and everything. Wow.”
Randall finally got a look of the man as he smashed in her window, then sparking that explosion inside the car.
“I've been picturing it. How it happened, how it took place this whole time," Randall said. "To see it visually, actually be able to see it taking place, it hit me all over again.”
Randall was a mail carrier and a single mom to 3 kids who was on her route Thursday when she got the call, being told not only that her car was on fire but it was done on purpose.
“Who would want to do that to me? That’s what I started to think, like who?" Randall said. "Who sent you to do this and why? That’s the big question.”
Germany Bennett captured cell phone video that shows the fire quickly spreading, damaging 5 other vehicles. Bennett says he was mere feet away when the explosion happened.
“I ain't going to lie it sounded like something in a war zone," Bennett said. "Just the boom, it sounded like somebody dropping bombs or something.”
Bennett is the manager at Mr. B's Car Wash next door and was under the hood of his own car when he heard the explosion, then felt the glass hitting him and his car.
"You could actually feel it, the impact," Bennett said. "If it wasn't for the middle car right here it could've been a whole lot worse.”
“It's been a lot on me mentally," Randall said of the incident. "I haven't been sleeping, I've been jumping up the middle of the night waking up, looking around.”
She’s now anxious, wondering who this person i and if they’ll come back. Her car is a total loss, along with her kids' car seats in the back. She’s hoping to get a new vehicle before they start school and hoping this man, is off the street soon.
“He looks like he got injured pretty badly in that video, so someone knows where he is, someone knows where he’s at,” Randall said.
Six vehicles in all were damaged, with four of them burned.
The suspect is described as a heavy-set man, last seen wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, a white shirt underneath, and blue jeans.
Randall and her family set up a fundraiser to help purchase a new vehicle.
If anyone has information in this case, they are asked to call the Detroit Police Department’s Arson Unit at 313-596-2940, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-Speak Up, or DetroitRewards.tv.
