Black Woman Allegedly Attempted To Burn Down Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birth Home

Welp, it turns out the woman seen in a viral video dousing the birth home of Martin Luther King Jr. in gasoline is a Black woman. According to the Atlanta Police Department, the would-be arsonist who was confronted and detained by tourists from Utah has been identified as 26-year-old Laneisha Shantrice Henderson. Henderson, who was charged with second-degree arson and interfering with government property, can be seen in a short video clip circling the historic house with a large red canister when a bystander asks her, “What are you doing?” Then the voice behind the camera is heard saying, “That’s gasoline!” The video then cuts to a man pinning Henderson to the ground presumably waiting for the police to arrive. According to NBC News, the tourists who witnessed the incident told officers they were there to visit the historical landmark and that they initially thought Henderson was watering plants, not trying to burn down the home of one of the most iconic leaders in the civil rights movement.

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“When they realized what was going on, they started to plead with Ms. Henderson to stop, but she was ignoring them,” according to the incident report. “It also seemed as if she started to rush and pour the gasoline out faster on and around the historical house.”

One witness told WXIA-TV that he stood at the bottom of the stairs outside the home and told Henderson to stop while he “blocked her for about a minute…from going up the stairs.” Bystanders helped detain Henderson until officers arrived and during that time, according to witnesses, she tried to spark the lighter she was holding.

What Henderson’s motive was hasn’t been revealed, but, predictably, social media has exploded in opinions and comments that include apparently false allegations that Henderson is an immigrant, whiny white people claiming the media isn’t covering the story because the alleged arsonist is Black (despite the fact that the story has been widely covered by the media, especially after Henderson was identified), and Black people generally scratching their heads wondering WTF is going on here. You can check out some of the responses below (starting with the loud, wrong and whiny Caucasians who suddenly have no issue with “playing the race card”).

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