Man threw "Molotov cocktail," burned Pennsylvania convenience store, authorities say
A Pennsylvania man used a "Molotov cocktail" to set fire to a store while people were inside earlier this month, authorities said.
Agustin Cisneros-Bedolla, of West Grove, allegedly went inside the Xpress Stop store on Gap Newport Pike on March 1, the Chester County District Attorney's Office said.
After buying a lighter and gum, he left and quickly returned before demanding someone hand over the keys to a car parked outside the store.
"The Defendant was holding a Molotov cocktail — in this case, a glass bottle with a flammable fluid and a cloth sticking out of the top — and threatened to light it on fire," the DA's office said in a news release. "After he obtained a set of spare keys, the Defendant lit the cloth, threw the glass bottle in the direction of the employees, and fled. The store was quickly engulfed in flames."
"We tried to stop the fire, we tried our best and we couldn't contain it," said Prashandh Chindhala, who was working inside the store at the time.
"When I came out and was calling 911, they came right away, and half of the store was completely burned," said Raja Neelarabu, who bought the convenience store nearly two years ago.
The roof of the store was left charred, the walls and shelves melted, and thousands of dollars in merchandise burned in minutes.
As the fire started to spread, police say the suspect wasn't able to get into the vehicle using the spare keys, so he then attempted to carjack another person's vehicle, which had a passenger inside. When that was not successful, he fled the scene on foot.
Luckily, no one was seriously injured, but Chindhala and Neelarabu said they were scared for their lives.
"I'm really thankful that I'm still alive and talking, I can go see my family," Chindhala said.
According to the store owner, the fire caused more than $300,000 in damage. Neelarabu is expecting his first baby this summer, and he said he's losing money every day he's not open, but he hopes to reopen the store in 4-6 weeks.
"He should be in jail for a long time, I'm hoping, because I don't want to see these kind of people around here," Neelarabu said.
State troopers interviewed witnesses in the neighborhood and learned that shortly before the incident, Cisneros-Bedolla was in possession of gas canisters.
The next day, "a member of the public" brought Cisneros-Bedolla to the state police Avondale barracks, and he was taken into custody. Police said Cisneros-Bedolla told detectives he is remorseful for his actions and did it for attention.
He is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated arson, robbery, possession of weapons of mass destruction and other offenses. After an arraignment on March 2, a judge set a cash bail at $2,000,000. He waived a preliminary hearing on Friday.
