Man in custody after a Virginia council member was set on fire over ‘a personal matter,’ police say

A suspect is in custody after a Danville, Virginia, city council member was set on fire Wednesday morning by a man police say he knows.

The suspect entered Lee Vogler’s place of employment, confronted him and doused him with an unknown flammable liquid, Danville police said in a news release.

Andrew Brooks, the publisher and owner of Showcase Magazine, said Vogler was attacked at the magazine’s office.

The man “forced his way into our office carrying a 5-gallon bucket of gasoline and poured the gasoline on Lee,” Brooks said in a social media video.

Vogler, 38, and the suspect left the building and the suspect allegedly set him on fire, police said.

The suspect, identified by police as Shotsie Michael Buck Hayes, 29, fled the area, but witnesses provided a description of him and his vehicle.

Brooks said Vogler was able to identify his alleged attacker.

CNN is working to determine whether Buck Hayes has an attorney.

The two men know each other and the attack “stems from a personal matter not related to the victim’s position on the Danville City Council or any other political affiliation,” police said in the statement.

“This type of senseless violence has to stop,” Brooks said in the social media video. “You do not have the right as a human being to get upset with someone enough to lash out and attempt to harm them in any way, much less this way.”

Danville is in southern Virginia on the border of North Carolina. It is about one hour south of Lynchburg and approximately one hour north of Durham, North Carolina.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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