EL CAJON, Calif. — A man was taken to an area hospital Thursday night after falling from a roof with self-inflected wounds from a hammer, screwdriver, and fire, according to El Cajon police.
El Cajon police officers, Heartland, San Miguel, and Santee Fire Department were dispatched to the 600 block of East Washington Avenue in El Cajon around 5:11 p.m., following reports that a man was standing on the roof of a duplex that was on fire and running frantically, according to police.
Witnesses told CBS 8 they heard bystanders shouting at the man in Spanish to get down and that the fire department was on its way.
When El Cajon police arrived on scene, they discovered a man, approximately in his 40s, on a roof with a screwdriver and a hammer attempting to light the roof and himself on fire.
El Cajon police said they tried to talk the man off the roof, but the situation escalated when the man began striking himself in the head with a hammer approximately 10-15 times before eventually falling off the roof and landing on the ground below.
A Watch Commander on duty for El Cajon police elaborated on the incident on a call with CBS 8 and said it appears drugs may have altered the man's mind.
Firefighters had difficulty extinguishing the fire, possibly due to the fact the man had “some sort of accelerant” on his clothing he lit on fire, police said.
The sole victim of the incident was transported to an area hospital in an unknown condition to be treated for multiple stab wounds, blows to the head with a hammer, and burn injuries, police told CBS 8.
The fire did not severely damage the structure.
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