The business owner, John McDermott, says he and his son managed to detain the suspect – but despite more than a dozen 911 calls, police and fire could not help them because of limited staffing and BLM protesters are also blocking all entry points.
McDermott said he got a call Sunday after the suspect smashed a window and got inside his business.
"Broke into the building, set fire to the front counter," McDermott said.
He and his son said the suspect put hand sanitizer all over a cassette tape, pulled out the film, and put hand sanitizer all over it as well as the counter – then lit it all on fire.
McDermott said they walked in right after the fire was lit and managed to quickly snuff it out.
His son, Mason McDermott, said he saw the suspect taking off from the south side of the building.
"I chased him down and a s soon as I came face to face, he came at me so I put him on the ground," Mason McDermott said. He said he had the suspect pinned while his dad repeatedly called 911.
"At some point he tried to cut me with a box cutter," Mason said. He pointed to a large rip on his jeans from where the knife cut just his pants.
He said while they had the suspect detained, protesters rushed over and demanded they let the suspect go.
"It was either that, or they were coming over and it was going to turn into mayhem beyond mayhem," McDermott said.
Still – protesters knocked over their fence and rushed inside the lot at Car Tender. Multiple videos on YouTube and Twitter show that moment. Some protesters rush up to McDermott while others try to hold them back and get them off the property.
McDermott said by that time, they’d already let the suspect go.