Brandon man who survived gasoline-and-fire suicide attempt identified

BRANDON — A man tried to kill himself Wednesday morning by dousing himself with gasoline and lighting himself on fire, authorities said.

He has been identified as Ronald Mercer, 67, of 606 Larrie Ellen Way. Mercer survived and was taken to Tampa General Hospital, said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter.

Just before 9 a.m., Astrid Perez, 37, heard screams from a yard on Larrie Ellen Way, near Kings Avenue and Lumsden Road. She first thought it was the sound of children playing.

But then she heard a man yelling "911! 911!"

Perez ran two doors down and found her neighbor lying against a tree in his back yard, his skin charred "like plastic," Perez said.

His clothes had been burned off his body. Nearby, his shoes were still smoking. Perez and another neighbor called 911.

Perez initially thought the man had suffered a terrible accident as he worked on his home. Then she saw a red plastic gas container nearby.

The man told her he tried to commit suicide, she said.

"It's horrible," she said, still visibly shaken. "I've never seen anything like that before."

The Sheriff's Office says Mercer's condition is unknown.

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