A distraught Florida father set himself ablaze moments after he learnt that his first-born son had been killed in combat in Iraq, police said today.
Three Marine officers arrived at the home of Carlos Arredondo, 44, yesterday to break the news that his son, Private First Class Alexander Arredondo, 20, was dead.
Within seconds, Mr Arredondo walked outside, smashed the windows of the Marines’ van, doused it with petrol and climbed inside clutching a propane tank from the garage, a police spokesman said. He set the van ablaze, while still inside.
The three officers desperately dragged him from the van and extinguished the flames on the man. He was taken to hospital in a serious condition.
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Mr Arrendono’s wife Melida - the dead Marine’s stepmother - said she knew the officers were bringing bad news as soon as she saw them approaching the house.
“My husband immediately knew that his first-born son had been killed - and my husband did not take the news well,” she said. “It doesn’t surprise me that he was so traumatised. He went crazy.”
A police spokesman said: “The father was in disbelief, same as any of us would be after hearing this kind of news. But then the father basically loses it. You can only imagine what this father was going through. He snapped, to say the least.”
Mr Arredondo’s son was killed during the latest fighting in Najaf where US forces have been battling against Iraqi militiamen loyal to radical Shia Muslem cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The dead Marine’s grandmother, Luz Marina Arredondo, blamed the Bush Administration for the death. “They send them like guinea pigs over there,” she said.
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Mr Arredondo was in a serious condition with severe burns to his arms and legs at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.