Kendall Burton serial shoplifter and homeless man sets Bay Area store clerk on fire with lighter fluid at Appian Food and Liquor in El Sobrante as worker remains hospitalized.
‘I tried to cover his hand, but I don’t know. I don’t remember. He just lit the fire on me you know.’
Surveillance footage has captured the moment a serial shoplifter set a Bay Area, California store clerk on fire after he tried to stop an alleged thief from stealing.
Suraj — the store clerk who declined to reveal his last name out of fear of being targeted again — is seen on video confronting Kendall Burton before he doused Suraj’s head with lighter fluid on Sept. 22 at the Appian Food and Liquor in El Sobrante, and then lighting it, setting the hapless worker on fire.
WATCH: Suraj (last name redacted), Clerk of Appian Food & Liquor, was set on fire by 38 y/o homeless man shoplifting from his store.
Suraj needs major surgery to recover. A fundraiser has been started to help w/ medical bills. Please dm us w/ more info.pic.twitter.com/b14qFMeM1r
— Asians Against Wokeness (@AZNsAgainstWoke) October 2, 2023
‘He just splashed lighter fluid on my face, and I was so scared that moment,’
Footage shows another worker rushing to Suraj’s aid with a baseball bat seconds before flames instantly consume the clerk’s head according to a video obtained by CBS News.
‘I tried to cover his hand, but I don’t know. I don’t remember. He just lit the fire on me you know,’ Suraj told the outlet.
‘I just rushed to the restroom, and I just splashed water on my face.’
Suraj — who has been working at the store for the past five years — said he and other workers at the Bay Area store deal with shoplifters regularly, but nothing to this magnitude has ever happened.
Co-workers warned the clerk at the start of his shift that Burton had been in the store multiple times that day to steal lighter fluid.
‘He just splashed lighter fluid on my face, and I was so scared that moment,’ Suraj told CBS News.
Suraj suffered second and third-degree burns to his face, neck, chest, and shoulder.
The clerk remains hospitalized at San Francisco’s Saint Francis Memorial Hospital a week after the attack.
‘It’s terrible,’ Suraj told the outlet from his hospital bed. Adding, ‘You know, I’m still in a trauma right now, me, my family.’
The worker will need several surgeries as a result of his burns.
‘When we clean the wound, it’s like over 10,’ the clerk said of the pain he’s experiencing in the aftermath of the attack.
The Appian Food and Liquor store is about 20 miles southwest of Downtown San Francisco.
Habitual offender
‘First of all, I would like to say nobody has to go through this kind of situation, and the small stores should have more security or something like that,’ Surja told the outlet.
‘The workplace should be safer.’
Suraj’s wife, Sabeena, has started a GoFundMe page to help raise money for her husband’s physical and mental care as he embarks on his journey to recovery.
‘Wounds by the burn takes time to heal and recover and we are overwhelmed by the mental trauma and the pressure of medical procedures,’ Sabeena wrote on the fundraising site.
Burton, 38, a homeless man in the El Sobrante area, faces charges including assault with a deadly weapon, battery, arson, and robbery according to Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office.
The serial offender is being held without bail. The man’s previous criminal rap sheet wasn’t immediately known.
