Man sets himself afire in suburban Illinois mall

CHERRY VALLEY, Ill. -- A man who shouted "freedom and liberty for all" and lit himself on fire Friday morning at a northern Illinois shopping mall was in critical condition with nearly half his body burned, hospital officials said.

Witnesses said the man, identified as 27-year-old Rockford resident Richard Lewis, was yelling as he leaned from a mezzanine railing and threw burning packages onto the CherryVale Mall's center court. The fire was just outside the second-floor Marshall Field's entrance.

Cherry Valley police said Lewis apparently doused himself with gas. He also carried a backpack full of two soda jugs containing gasoline and one containing ammonia, Officer David Fiduccia said. He lit the backpack and dropped it, but it was extinguished before it could explode.

"He began yelling, 'Freedom to America...'" Fiduccia said. His motive was unknown, Fiduccia said.

Two shoppers subdued him and extinguished the fire that consumed him. Security guards rounded up the burning packages and put them out. Lewis, who wore handcuffs dangling from one hand, then locked his hands together, Fiduccia said.

Mall employee Jeremy Wolf said while Lewis' clothes were still on fire he had a leg stretched over the railing as if to jump down to the center court, where some 500 shoppers were waiting in line.

"I could literally see his face on fire," Wolf said.

Fiduccia said Lewis fell unconscious when transported to the hospital.

Lewis first went to Rockford's OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center but was flown to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Saint Anthony spokesman Gregory Alford said. Loyola officials reported Lewis suffered burns to more than 30 percent of his body and was in critical condition Friday evening.

Two men, both 42, who grabbed the burning man were treated for burns on their hands and released, Alford said.