Customers inside a McDonald’s near Disneyland Resort disarmed and subdued a man who allegedly tried to set the restaurant on fire using gasoline and a blowtorch.
The incident occurred shortly after 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the McDonald’s located at 119 W. Ball Road in Anaheim.
Witnesses say the suspect, identified by police as Martin Gonzalez, 53, walked into the restaurant carrying a two-liter soda bottle filled with gasoline and the blowtorch, and began shouting obscenities and threats.
Humberto Aguiar, who was dining with his 22-year-old son and 4-year-old grandson after visiting Disneyland, said he initially tried to talk to Gonzalez before physically intervening.
“With my right hand I pushed the bottle of gasoline,” Aguiar told KTLA 5 News on Friday. “Then I got on top of him to take him out, so he wouldn’t light it, and then I held him, and he poured gasoline on me and on himself.”
Aguiar said Gonzalez managed to spark the blowtorch, but it failed to ignite the fuel.
“Thank God it didn’t light … because he would have lit up himself, me, and the whole place. It all happened very quickly,” Aguiar said.
Other customers fled the restaurant as Aguiar and another customer held Gonzalez until Anaheim police arrived and took him into custody. He was later booked on a felony arson charge.
Police credited the bystanders with potentially saving lives.
“The video I’ve seen … there are several kids nearby at the kiosk ordering food as well as the Good Samaritan who had the child with him… the situation could have been very, very bad,” Anaheim police Sgt. Matt Sutter told KTLA’s Chip Yost.
Authorities said Gonzalez has no known criminal history in Orange County. His motive remains unclear.
Aguiar said he believes faith played a role in his actions.
“There was a lot of people and in my head, I couldn’t let someone hurt people and children, innocent people,” he said. “I feel like God put me there and I feel like God used me to do something.”
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