Iranian sets himself on fire
Blaze extinguished quickly; man will survive
By GREGORY A. HALL
[email protected]
The Courier-Journal
BY PAT McDONOGH, THE COURIER-JOURNAL
An Iranian immigrant whom friends described as ill and worried about his bills set himself on fire just before 10 a.m. yesterday outside the Hall of Justice.
Morteza Mehrpou, 48, shouted something repeatedly — witnesses differ on what they heard — and then poured gasoline over himself from a half-gallon plastic jug before igniting it with a lighter.
He was in stable condition yesterday at University Hospital and is expected to survive, said Maj. Henry Ott of Louisville Fire & Rescue's arson division.
With the help of interpreters, Mehrpou told investigators that he set himself ablaze as "a political protest about the treatment of refugees in this country," Ott said. The man "was very specific about that."
Mehrpou was being held at the hospital both for treatment and on a mental inquest warrant, which was obtained after the incident, Ott said
Iksa Ageili, a friend and neighbor at the Americana Apartments, said she's known Mehrpou for about a year. He has no family in the area, she said.
Ageili said that Mehrpou has hepatitis and that the power in his apartment was cut off about a week ago.
She said that he was not being evicted and that Catholic Charities had agreed to pay the bills. But Mehrpou was upset with the agency over delays in making payment, Ageili said.
Cecelia Price, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Louisville, confirmed yesterday that the man who set himself on fire is a Catholic Charities client. She said she could not discuss his case because of confidentiality issues.
Ageili said Mehrpou ate a meal with her around 4 p.m. Thursday and was upset about the unpaid bills. She also spoke to him by phone around 11 p.m. and he said he was out walking, she said.
"I wasn't sure" whether he would do something drastic, Ageili said, although Mehrpou appeared to be angry. She said he has never shown any signs of mental problems.
Another friend, Zuber Arif, said Mehrpou would visit his apartment occasionally. Arif said he hadn't spoken to Mehrpou in a couple of weeks but saw him in passing last week. Arif said he hadn't noticed anything that made him worried.
MEHRPOU is limited in what he can do because of his health problems, and he had been fired from a job, Arif said. He could not provide any information about that job.
Mehrpou told investigators that he had sent letters to Gov. Ernie Fletcher and Mayor Jerry Abramson, Ott said. A spokesman for Abramson said he could not find any such letter yesterday.
A call to a spokeswoman for the governor was not returned.
The fire took place on one of the busiest pedestrian corners in downtown Louisville — in front of the main entrance to the Hall of Justice at the corner of Sixth and Jefferson streets, where people congregate and courthouse employees smoke.
Witnesses said Mehrpou, who was shouting, came from the Sixth Street side and stopped just under an overhang near the entrance, which overlooks a plaza that extends to the corner.
Sharon Williams, a deputy clerk with the Jefferson Circuit Court Clerk's office who was on a smoke break, said the man repeatedly said, "Whose fault is it now?"
"He just kept saying it over and over," she said.
Other witnesses said they thought he was repeating something in a language other than English.
Some witnesses said at least one of the papers that Mehrpou carried had "who's responsible" written on it.
Williams said she saw someone call 911 on a cell phone. In the meantime, police and deputies were converging at the corner.
Two men taunted the man, told police to shoot him and dared the man to ignite himself, Williams said. She said police yelled at the men to shut up.
The man moved a few feet out from the overhang, to the plaza, Williams said, as one officer talked to him and told him that everything would be OK.
The man then tapped his head with the lighter, Williams said, setting himself ablaze.
THE FIRE was put out quickly by Sgt. Robert Calbert of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, who had arrived with an extinguisher, and other law enforcement officials.
Williams, interviewed later in her office, wept as she described what she had seen.
"I didn't think he was going to do it," she said.
Angela Burch, who was visiting the courthouse, said she was standing outside when the man walked up and started yelling.
"He was very angry," she said.
Burch, who carries a tape recorder, said she hit the record button.
"It was definitely Arabic," she said. Burch said that she used to care for children of Arabian descent and that their mother told her how to say "quiet" in Arabic.
Burch said she yelled the word to the man before he set himself on fire, and he paused briefly.
The man doused himself in what she said she initially thought was lemonade or Gatorade. Then she noticed the smell of gasoline, she said.
She said she gave the tape recorder to another man nearby and went inside to notify deputies.
"It just scared me to no end," said Burch, who said she dropped to her knees and prayed for the man.
She estimated that the incident lasted about five minutes.
Two people inside the courthouse said they could hear the commotion through the windows.
Maureen Kyle, a reporter with WAVE-3, said she heard the man shouting while she was in a second-floor office inside the Hall of Justice.
She said she saw the man's sign and the half-gallon jug and then saw him douse himself. He appeared to have something behind his back, which she said she believes was the lighter.
BY THAT TIME a couple of police officers had gathered but kept a distance away from the man, she said.
"He looked like he was getting anxious," Kyle said. "His screams became louder."
Kyle was next to deputy clerk Alice Lucas, who also listened and watched from the window.
Lucas said the man tried to remove a nylon jacket he was wearing just after he ignited himself.
David Beyer, a spokesman for the FBI in Louisville, said the bureau investigated "out of an abundance of caution" to see whether the incident was related to terrorism or the federal government.
Although agents are still investigating, "based on what we have determined this far, it appears to be personal in nature," he said.
