A family’s business was destroyed after an arsonist torched their shop in downtown Los Angeles, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
Valerie Mendez’s family owns HM Hormiguitas, a beauty supply store in Santee Alley. They’ve been in operation for 15 years before an arsonist set fire to their shop on July 8.
Surveillance video captured a male suspect walking toward the shop in the morning before business hours, while holding several unknown items and pushing a large dumpster over.
The masked suspect attempts to hide behind the dumpster as he pours flammable liquid all over the ground at the shop’s entrance before lighting the spot on fire. He then sprints away from the growing blaze.
“He had a bottle of liquid and he poured it on what I think is fabric,” Mendez told KTLA’s Sandra Mitchell.
As Mendez and her family pick up the pieces, they’re left with many unanswered questions.
“We’re scared,” Mendez said. “We don’t know who did this, but when we saw the footage of the guy, we realized it was definitely targeted at our family. This was definitely intentional.”
After fire crews extinguished the blaze, the owners were heartbroken to discover the beauty shop’s interior was completely destroyed.
“The flames, they looked really big and intense and it reached all the way to the ceiling,” Mendez said. “It really did a lot of damage to the store and the products.”
Mendez said they lost about $70,000 worth of merchandise and they don’t have insurance that would cover the loss.
Arson investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department are investigating the case.
The destructive fire has left many nearby business owners on edge, worried they could be the next target as the suspect remains at large.
“It’s very scary,” said Avdel Gomez, a business owner on Santee Alley. “Everybody’s worried about it because we don’t really know what [the suspect’s] intentions can be.”
“It really hurts to see our family business go down like this,” Mendez said.
Anyone with information on the case can call the LAPD at 1-877-527-3247.
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