Coral Springs was shaken after a family home was set on fire, allegedly by a local resident. The suspect, 29-year-old Jacqulin Oneuil, is now facing a first-degree arson charge following the harrowing incident last night; his motives, suggested by family statements, point towards a mental health crisis that escalated into violence, as reported by NBC Miami.
Oneuil’s mother, Jacquelin Louima told NBC Miami about the terrifying evening, “My cousin was in the living room… he say ‘ Jack Jack, don’t do it, don’t do it,'” and ended with her escaping the inferno that rapidly consumed her home after an explosion, “It was explosion, lot of flame,” she said, “Thank God I’m alive!” The same source reports that, before setting the fire, Louima was on a phone call with the police, a preemptive measure taken perhaps because her son had previously threatened to burn the house down three months earlier.
Adding to this narrative, CBS News Miami shared further details: Louima had given Oneuil $20 earlier that evening to buy food, a sum she suspects he instead used to purchase gasoline, a theory corroborated by surveillance footage from a Wawa store nearby showing him buying gas. During the onset of the fire, Oneuil’s brother, Anthony Laurent, described a chilling scene, “Get out the house. I’m about to burn the house down,” he recounted his brother saying moments before the destruction began…