Man accused of dousing clerk with gasoline

Police say a man attacked a Fort Worth convenience store clerk -- not with a gun or a knife, but with gasoline.

The clerk, Gautam Chougule, says the 45-year-old suspect went into a rage because he couldn't get a gas pump to work.

That man's in jail...we'll hear what he has to say about charges that he doused the clerk with gasoline and threatened to set him on fire.
“Lift the pump, press the yellow key and push the nozzle all the way in the can,” said Chougule.

Chougule says that's all Hector Hernandez-Flores had to do to pump $5 worth of gas to finish mowing his lawn.

The clerk told police when Hernandez-Flores had trouble with the pump, he went on a gas slinging rampage and threatened to set him on fire.

“What he did, got mad put up the pump, picked up the can and threw it at the window right there,” said Chougule.

The front of the Famous Foods convenience store is covered with gas stains, and the nozzle from the gas can is still there.

“I came to see what happened,” said Chougule. “Turned this way, he picked up the gas can and splashed gas on me and he started to hit me with the gas can on my hand my chest…”

Hernandez-Flores is in jail charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

He speaks no English, but in Spanish, denied pouring gasoline on the clerk.

He claims the clerk got gasoline on himself when the two of them struggled over the gas can and he never threatened to set the clerk on fire.

“My hair was full of gas, face full of gas, my T-shirt drenched, all of gas,” said Chougule.
Hernandez-Flores insists that they fought over the gas can and says he couldn't have set the clerk on fire because he didn't have a lighter.

Chougule says he didn’t know that.

“This was pretty terrifying for me,” said Chougule.

The store clerk says all of this happened out of view of the security cameras.

Hernandez-Flores does admit that he got angry. He says he did beat up on the gas pump when it didn't work, and not the clerk.