A 26-year-old woman in Atlanta was in the middle of an attempt to burn down Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth home when bystanders intervened.
Holding a huge red gasoline can, Laneisha Shantrice Henderson can be seen on video (see below, posted by WSB-TV) splashing gas across the front of the house, as well as in bushes that border the porch. But, off camera, two tourists visiting from Utah spotted the would-be arsonist and asked her what she was doing. She can be seen waving her hand, as if brushing off their concerns.
What the footage doesn’t show is how the tourists then allegedlt stopped Henderson from grabbing a lighter that was in the grass. They also called the police, who charged her “with criminal attempt arson and criminal attempt interference with government property,” according to WSB-TV.
Zach Kempf, who identified himself to The New York Times as one of the people who helped stop her and called police, described the woman as having a “nervous energy” to her, but said “she wasn’t aggressive.”
The woman tried to walk away after he and others stopped her from grabbing a lighter that she had left in the grass, Kempf added.
Shortly after she was physically restrained and police arrived, Kempf said an older man who looked “very distraught” appeared with three women. They identified themselves as the suspect’s father and sisters and said they had been looking for her and using the woman’s location signal from her phone to track her. They said she is a veteran who was experiencing mental distress.
The landmark nonprofit King Center, whose campus is located less than a block from the home, expressed gratitude to those who helped impede disaster.
“Our prayers are with the individual who allegedly committed this criminal act,” the center said in a statement.
