It was a stroke of luck this week in Atlanta when two tourists from Utah who stopped to see the historic house of Martin Luther King Jr. at the last minute and spotted a woman near the bushes of the civil rights icon’s home wielding a canister of gasoline, and a lighter, authorities said.
An incident report from the Atlanta Police Department obtained on Friday by Law&Crime says two men from Utah in the state on business decided to check out the King Jr. house before leaving. Bryce Grady and Zachery Kempf spotted a woman dressed in all black, Laneisha Shantrice Henderson, behaving oddly outside the home, the document said.
Henderson, they told police, was “pouring what seemed to be water at the time over the bushes” and did not think anything of it. When they asked her if she was doing upkeep by watering them, the men said Henderson didn’t respond.
They continued asking her questions, but they claimed she continued to ignore them.
Then it clicked. A cap to the canister she was holding fell into the grass. “Instead of looking like a pot for watering plants, it resembled that of a container to hold gas,” the incident report states.
Police said Henderson ignored the men who kept peppering her with questions, and then it “seemed as if she started to rush,” pouring the gasoline out faster on and around Martin Luther King Jr.’s house.
“They saw no other option but to apprehend her, along with the help of other bystanders in the area, as they tried to get her detained,” police said. “While trying to detain her, they advised that she was actively trying to spark the lighter to the property and bushes, so they had to remove it out of her hands and get her under control until police responded.”
According to police, after Kempf and Grady detained her, two off-duty New York Police Department officers also responded to the landmark and detained her.
The scuffle was caught on surveillance footage. Police said they also secured footage of Henderson arriving at the house in her black Chevy Cruze with Florida tags. Henderson is a resident of Brandon, Florida, according to police records. She was wearing black socks without shoes, police said.
The woman was arrested and sent to Grady Memorial Hospital for a psychological evaluation on Thursday. Fulton County Jail records indicate Henderson was booked on Friday.
She was charged with criminal attempt arson in the second degree and felony interference with government property. Her car was towed and was held as evidence by the Atlanta Police Department.
It is unclear if she has retained an attorney.
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