‘I’m gonna light you on fire.’ Fort Worth officials describe violent robbery, arrest
The hotel clerk behind the window didn’t find it odd when a man came in to inquire about how much a room cost and then abruptly left. He didn’t think twice when the same man returned with purple cloth wrapped around his face, given the increasing use of masks amid the coronavirus pandemic.
When the man demanded he hand over money or he would burn him alive, the clerk thought it had to be a joke or a hoax, according to Capt. David Jones of the Fort Worth Fire Department Arson and Bomb division.
But then the man, whom authorities believe to be 48-year-old David Lynn Sarkisian, sprayed a clear liquid from a water bottle — likely gasoline — onto the clerk and the hotel office, Jones said. He began waving a lighter and demanding money from a box on the counter. Investigators believe it contained slips with paper receipts and cash deposits.
“Give me those files or I’m gonna light you on fire,” Sarkisian could be heard saying in security videos, according to Jones. And he followed through on the threat.
After Sarkisian ignited the liquid, flames spread throughout the front office of the Budget Host Inn on Tanacross Drive, authorities said. But the clerk happened to be wearing an outfit that was fairly fire-resistant and an automatic sprinkler system immediately turned on, according to Fort Worth Fire Department spokesman Mike Drivdahl. The clerk only suffered minor burns.
Officials also announced during a press conference on Friday that a tip from the public led to Sarkisian’s arrest Thursday night on the charge of arson of a habitation causing bodily injury.
Local officials also took time to provide more details on the bizarre crime that investigators called horrifying and violent, as well praise those whose efforts led to his arrest.
“I have held the line that when fire is used as a threat to intimidate or to harm facilities, occupancies or residents of the City of Fort Worth, that we will aggressively investigate and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” Fire Chief James Davis said during the press conference.
Investigators were interviewing Sarkisian, but so far hadn’t been able to glean a lot of information, officials said on Friday. It remains unclear why he decided to target this hotel in such a violent way, or how long he had been planning the robbery attempt, they said.
Security footage showed him driving between different hotels on Sunday night before he chose the Budget Host Inn, though investigators don’t know why he targeted it, Jones said. Investigators also discovered he had a long criminal record, most of it drug-related.
Officials described his arrest as the result of members of the public and law enforcement agencies cooperating quickly to put together information. Investigators were able to determine from security footage outside of the hotel that the attacker was driving a white four-door Honda Accord, which was later seen at a gas station across the street, Jones said. He bought $2 of gasoline there, leading investigators to believe that’s what was inside the water bottle.
Testing for the substance wasn’t back as of Friday, Jones said.
At the gas station, they were able to get a clear picture of his license plate and of his face, which was the image the department shared with the public. They received 10 tips, one of them promising.
A woman reached out saying she had worked with him and even took smoke breaks with him.
“Specifically, the way he held the lighter — she was confident that it was him,” Jones said. “We did our research on him ... We found out he really didn’t have any family left in the area that talked with him or that was alive.”
Investigators determined the car belonged to a woman whom Sarkisian once listed as an emergency contact on a former lease agreement, Jones said. They located the car at the woman’s residence in Keller, he said, and she told them Sarkisian had taken it from her on Saturday without her permission. She told them she didn’t know a crime had been committed in it.
She was able to help lead them to Sarkisian, and they served him with an arrest warrant on Thursday night. They also served several other search warrants at various residences.
Police from Fort Worth, Keller and the ATF Fort Worth Field Office assisted in serving the warrants, officials said on Friday.
Sarkisian is being held in Tarrant County Jail on a $100,000 bond. Additional charges are expected in the coming days, including aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, burglary of a motor vehicle and theft.
This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 11:52 AM.
