Another day in the city...

So I work in downtown Seattle. Like pretty much any big city (I'm assuming), we hear a lot of sirens during the day. Lots of fire trucks, cop cars and ambulances driving around. You tend to ignore it, figuring it's just some guy having chest pains in an office building, or a homeless person too drunk to get up. But occasionally it's something interesting. Something that gets a headline like this: Man sets women's hair on fire in downtown Seattle

Now, what makes this REALLY interesting is that:

a) It happened while I was working out at the gym a block away from the incident,
2) I saw the fire truck and cops go by and ignored it, and
iii) I know the un-named witness.

The story from my perspective:

So I'm on the tread mill and I see the cops and fire truck go by and think "Oh, another cop and fire truck driving by." I finish my workout, shower, get dressed and head back to work. As I'm walking down 3rd I see 2 squad cars parked at the corner and a guy with what looks like a TV news camera hanging around. "Huh." I think.

Then I look at the guy getting out of one of the squad cars and it's a guy I used to work with. I'll call him Horace Johnson.

"Huh," I think. "What's Horace doing in the cop car? Well, he's waiving at them and carrying his lunch, and getting out of the front of the car, so he can't be under arrest..."

Horace proceeds to walk down the street with this other guy. I'm just about to say "Hey, Johnson, what gives?" When I see that the other guy has a notebook out and Horace is saying "I don't want my name used..." So I think "OK, I won't say anything..."

I get back to work and start an IM chat with him and get his side of the story:

Scott Chicken says:

OK, I've got to ask...what was all the excitement? I was coming back from the gym and saw you getting out of the cop car, then being interviewed...

Horace Johnson says:

please don't drop my name around, but...a guy attacked 3 people, and set a woman on fire.
a few of us caught the guy until the police came

Scott Chicken says:

Damn! I won't drop any names...I was just about to say "Hey, Johnson...." when I heard you telling the reporter "don't use my last name". I saw the fire truck and cop car go by while I was on the treadmill, but didn't realize it was that exciting.

Horace Johnson says:

it was the craziest thing i've seen in a while

Scott Chicken says:

No shit!

Horace Johnson says:

i thought i was desensitized to weird events

Scott Chicken says:

So how exactly does one go about setting someone on fire? Did he have a gas can or something?

Horace Johnson says:

lighter fluid, he doused all 3 of them. the woman that got lit up REALLY got it bad. 3 foot flames

Scott Chicken says:

Jesus! That is truly insane.

Horace Johnson says:

shocking

Scott Chicken says:

Hoo yeah.