RALEIGH (MCT) — Police charged a Raleigh man Thursday with pouring gasoline on his live-in girlfriend and setting her on fire earlier this month.
Roderick Levon Sanders, 24, of 2805 Delco Court was charged with one felony count each of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, according to records filed at the City-County Bureau of Identification.
Emergency workers transported the girlfriend, Shyona Denise Perry, 19, to the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill, where she was treated for burns to her abdomen and upper legs, said Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue.
A neighbor called 911.
''Something is going on next door," the 911 caller, Kim Hill, told the dispatcher. "I heard a lady screaming."
Hill told the dispatcher that Perry walked outside and continued screaming, "Help me." Perry's leg appeared to be badly bruised. "It looks like some hot water or oil hit her leg," Hill said. "It's open."
Perry's medical condition at the hospital was unavailable Thursday afternoon, a spokeswoman said.
The incident was sparked by an argument between Perry and Sanders, Sughrue said.
It occurred Sept. 11, just after 12:45 p.m., inside an apartment Sanders and Perry shared at 4316 Presley Court, near Millbrook Road in North Raleigh, Sughrue said. When officers arrived, both Sanders and Perry were outside, he said.
Police launched an investigation that ended with Sanders' arrest Thursday. He was being held at the Wake County jail in lieu of $2 million bail, a jail spokesman said.
Court records listed Sanders' occupation as tree cutter. He has a lengthy criminal history that includes convictions for assault on a school official, assault on a law officer, misdemeanor larceny and multiple felony drug violations, state court records show.
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