Today the corner of Commercial Drive and East 10th Avenue is much calmer than it was last night, March 15, when a man doused himself with gasoline at a McDonald’s restaurant and lit himself on fire.
Wawmeesh Hamilton, Vancouver Courier contributor and reporter for Discourse Media, gave the Courier an exclusive account of the incident. He was having dinner with his wife and two daughters across the street at Commercial Sushi when he noticed a commotion and people streaming out of the fast food restaurant.
“While we were sitting there, I saw to the right of me outside of the window a police car come zooming, with lights on, in front of McDonald’s and an officer got out. I thought at first there had been a fight and I didn’t pay too much notice to other than that.”
Wawmeesh Hamilton and his family were eating at a Commercial Drive sushi restaurant across the street from a McDonald’s where a man lit himself on fire Thursday night. Photo Saša Laki?
After Hamilton and his family had finished their meals, his wife and daughters paid for the dinner and left. Hamilton stayed behind to talk to a friend.
“It couldn’t have been five, 10 minutes tops, while I was talking to my friend, a couple of police officers came in and said, ‘We need to clear the restaurant. There is a police incident across the street. We are afraid the windows of the McDonald’s could get blown out.’”
Hamilton looked across the street again and noticed a “whole pile of police cars” with the lights on. The two men were directed to walk to East 10th Avenue.
“So as I walk out the door, I look across the street and there’s three police officers standing in the doorway. One, I am certain, had a gun drawn. When you looked into the windows of the McDonald’s, there was no one around. There was nobody in there. It was completely barren.”
From the corner of East 10th Avenue, Hamilton said he could see the McDonald’s staff had also left and gathered at the far end of the restaurant.
“I walked to the side street, started watching. An ambulance had pulled up where I was standing on East 10th, and there was kind of a quiet,” Hamilton recalled.
While observing the scene, Hamilton noticed a firetruck had arrived and he heard bystanders say there was a man inside who had poured gasoline on himself and the restaurant floor and threatened to light himself on fire.
“Then I heard someone yell, ‘Oh no!’ And in seconds – and I mean seconds – I see smoke coming out of the doorway of the restaurant. You could hear pop-pop-pops, thuds,” said Hamilton, adding there were at least three to four shots before fire fighters moved in to douse the man.
“The bystanders were saying,‘He burned himself. He did it, he did it!’ There was lots of yelling.”
At that point, the ambulance engaged and drove over to the McDonald’s. Hamilton said it took emergency personnel half a minute to wheel the man out on a stretcher and drive off to a hospital.
“It all happened so fast,” Hamilton said. He was not sure how long the entire incident lasted and he had heard from bystanders the man had allegedly chased a woman around the street, threatening to burn her, prior to walking into the McDonald’s.
“I mean, you feel for the guy,” he said. “Obviously, he was disturbed to pour gas on himself and light himself aflame, but the people I really feel for are the police officers and the firefighters who were standing right in front of him in that doorway and saw light himself on fire. You’d never forget seeing something like that.”
@sashalakic
