{"id":10948,"date":"2025-10-18T05:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T05:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/10948\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T05:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T05:18:10","slug":"man-with-blowtorch-gasoline-allegedly-tries-to-set-fire-to-california-mcdonalds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/10948\/","title":{"rendered":"Man with blowtorch, gasoline allegedly tries to set fire to California McDonald\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Customers inside a McDonald\u2019s near Disneyland Resort<\/a> disarmed and subdued a man who allegedly tried to set the restaurant on fire using gasoline and a blowtorch.<\/p>\n

The chaotic scene unfolded shortly after 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the McDonald\u2019s located at 119 W. Ball Road in Anaheim.<\/p>\n

Witnesses say the suspect, identified by police as Martin Gonzalez, 53, walked into the restaurant carrying a two-liter soda bottle filled with gasoline and the blowtorch, and began shouting obscenities and threats.<\/p>\n

Humberto Aguiar, who was dining with his 22-year-old son and 4-year-old grandson after visiting Disneyland, said he initially tried to talk to Gonzalez before physically intervening.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith my right hand I pushed the bottle of gasoline,\u201d Aguiar told KTLA 5 News on Friday. \u201cThen I got on top of him to take him out, so he wouldn\u2019t light it, and then I held him, and he poured gasoline on me and on himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aguiar said Gonzalez managed to spark the blowtorch, but it failed to ignite the fuel.<\/p>\n

\"McDonald's<\/a><\/p>\n

Booking photo of Martin Gonzalez (Anaheim PD)<\/p>\n

\u201cThank God it didn\u2019t light \u2026 because he would have lit up himself, me, and the whole place. It all happened very quickly,\u201d Aguiar said.<\/p>\n

Other customers fled the restaurant as Aguiar and another customer held Gonzalez until Anaheim police arrived and took him into custody. He was later booked on a felony arson charge.<\/p>\n

Police credited the bystanders with potentially saving lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe video I\u2019ve seen \u2026 there are several kids nearby at the kiosk ordering food as well as the Good Samaritan who had the child with him\u2026 the situation could have been very, very bad,\u201d Anaheim police Sgt. Matt Sutter told KTLA\u2019s Chip Yost.<\/p>\n

Authorities said Gonzalez has no known criminal history in Orange County. His motive remains unclear.<\/p>\n

\"McDonald's<\/a><\/p>\n

Humberto Aguiar told KTLA that he subdued the man who attempted to set fire to a McDonald\u2019s in Anaheim on Oct. 15, 2025.<\/p>\n

Aguiar said he believes faith played a role in his actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of people and in my head, I couldn\u2019t let someone hurt people and children, innocent people,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like God put me there and I feel like God used me to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Customers inside a McDonald\u2019s near Disneyland Resort disarmed and subdued a man who allegedly tried to set the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4079,10258,7,9,8,4926,10257,10256],"class_list":{"0":"post-10948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-anaheim-police","9":"tag-blowtorch","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-disneyland-resort","14":"tag-humberto-aguiar","15":"tag-martin-gonzalez"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}