ROCHESTER, NY -- Rochester Police say that a woman was found burned on Dale Street on Sunday, and the incident is being investigated as a suicide attempt.
News10NBC does not normally report on suicides, but many people in the area had questions about what happened on Sunday in broad daylight.
Officers say they were called to a home on Dale Street around, where they found a woman on fire in a field located on a empty lot of the street.
The woman, reportedly somewhere between 40 and 50 years of age, was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital, where she is in guarded condition.
Tony Alonzo Thompson- a neighbor of the woman- was among those who found her. He was walking around the neighborhood when he found her, and immediately called 911.
"I'm trying to tell her, 'ma'am, it's gonna be alright.' I'm telling her it's gonna be alright. It's going to be alright.... but I'm crying because I knew her."
"She's looking right at," he said, "She's Deaf... and she pointed. She's naked, her pants are down to her ankles... and she was smoking."
Holly Mortensen, who lives across from the field where the woman was found, is still in shock over what happened.
"That's a little too close to home, that's my first reaction."
Mortensen was awakened by the police and firefighters that had arrived in the neighborhood, and when she looked outside, she saw one of her neighbors on fire.
"She wasn't moving, she was just laying there at the middle of the field," she recalls, "The EMTs put a respirator on her, or a resuscitator on her."
Fire and police have confirmed the event is now being investigated as a suicide attempt and that there is no danger to the public. Because of the sensitivity of the situation, News10NBC will not be releasing the name of the woman.
SOURCE - News10NBC
