The scene had all the makings of a horrific tragedy: On Thursday, a woman emptied what looked to be a large red can of gasoline all over the front porch of the house where Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta. She was seemingly intent on burning the historic home down.
But two visitors from Utah who had come to see the historic site were watching the woman — and they acted quickly to save it, standing in her way when she tried to bring a lighter onto the porch. When the woman tried to leave the scene, two other visitors stopped her and held her until police arrived.
“Their quick action saved the jewel of our city, something very important to Atlanta,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum told local TV stations at the scene. Praising the bystanders who intervened, he added, “That action saved an important part of American history tonight.”
Police arrived at the home around 5:45 p.m., after getting a 911 call about vandalism at the homejust east of downtown Atlanta.
The officers found “two what we believe to be off-duty NYPD officers who’d been visiting the center that had the individual detained,” Schierbaum said, adding that the officers had chased the woman down as she attempted to flee.
In an update, Atlanta Police identified the woman as Laneisha Shantrice Henderson, 26. She has now bee charged with arson and interfering with government property.
No damage to the King historic home, fire official says
Witness videos posted online showed a Black woman, later identified as Henderson, sloshing liquid from a red container onto the walls, windows and porch of the King home. After she was detained by the off-duty officers, footage showed her being held down on the sidewalk.
“Are you comfortable?” a woman standing next to Henderson asks her.
“I’m fine,” Henderson replies.
Atlanta Fire Battallion Chief Jerry DeBerry said that the woman had poured gas on the house. A hazmat team came to the house to…
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