Melida Arredondo said she and her husband knew what was coming as uniformed Marines approached their front door. "Three Marines came to our door, we could see through the window. And my husband immediately knew that his first-born son had been killed," she told CBS station WFOR-TV .While she started to cry, police say Carlos Arredondo simply snapped. Distraught, he climbed into the Marine Corps van parked outside his home and set it ablaze Wednesday afternoon, suffering severe burns. "It doesn't surprise me that he was so traumatized. He went crazy," Melida Arredondo said. Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, 20, based at Camp Pendleton, had died Tuesday in Najaf, Iraq. His father allegedly took out his grief on the nearest representation of the government, the U.S. Marines' van. "At one point he actually goes into the garage, picks up a can of gasoline and/or a propane tank, runs towards the vehicle, smashes the vehicle window and sets the U.S. governmental vehicle on fire," police Capt. Tony Rode said. "He's still inside the vehicle as it is fully engulfed in flames. [more]
