Teh One Who Knocks
07-06-2017, 11:52 AM
By Ann Schmidt For Dailymail.com
A man died after he rammed his car, filled with four propane tanks, into his ex-girlfriend's apartment.
Carl Philbert, 31, was reportedly upset with his ex-girlfriend so he drove his car into her apartment building Tuesday afternoon.
His white four-door sedan smashed through the front windows of her ground-floor apartment in Fort Pierce, Florida.
The car then caught fire, which caused an explosion that was caught on video by a neighbor.
Philbert died at the scene, but no one else was injured. Five adults and one toddler escaped through a back door.
http://i.imgur.com/0b6mzxB.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0b6mzxB.jpg
Eileen Cuevas, 26, said her mother, Philbert's ex-girlfriend, was in the front room when she saw him driving towards their apartment.
After he drove through their living room, Cuevas said she grabbed her three-year-old son, her mother and her grandmother and they left through the back door.
As they were leaving, the building and car had both caught fire.
'I just wanted people to help him because I saw his body burning,' Cuevas told TC Palm.
http://i.imgur.com/NW1zdHq.jpg
'You never want to see a thing like that. I saw his body, everything on fire.'
She told the outlet she still doesn't know why he did it.
'It's very personal. It's still weird talking about it. He was trying to get to my mom. It was meant for everybody that was in the house,' Cuevas said.
'I mean, the man had four or five propane tanks in the car. They were friends and it turned out really bad. This is very personal for our family, so it's kind of touchy.'
Fort Pierce Police Department spokesman Ed Cunningham said they believe Philbert and his ex-girlfriend got into an argument when he showed up at her apartment on Tuesday morning because he didn't like something he saw inside, WPTV reported.
Several hours later he intentionally drove into the building with four propane tanks in his car, three in the back seat and one in the passenger seat.
'He intended to do damage,' Cunningham said.
'He raced his car into this apartment where five people were, intending to kill them, blow the place up, or create some kind of havoc.'
Philbert has a history of domestic trouble with the woman he targeted, according to police.
Rescue crews from the St. Lucie County Fire District responded to the scene at 12.48pm.
In a video taken by neighbor Kathy Toledo, sirens can be heard in the background as the flames engulf the car and the part of the building above it.
Toledo explains that she lives in an apartment next door and that her husband helped bring an elderly woman down the stairs from the apartment directly above the fire.
As she explains the situation, one of the propane tanks explodes, frighting the people watching the scene.
Kathy's husband Pablo Toledo later told TC Palm that a woman on the second floor balcony called for his help.
'She was engulfed in smoke, so that's why I had to act,' he said.
'So I just ran up there. I really didn't think about the fire was going to get me. I just ran up there, grabbed her and came down. She continued thanking me.'
All eight units in the apartment complex were damaged in the fire.
The Fire District said that the American Red Cross was notified to help 13 adults and five children who had been living in the apartment building.
The Fire District, Fort Pierce police and the state Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the incident.
A man died after he rammed his car, filled with four propane tanks, into his ex-girlfriend's apartment.
Carl Philbert, 31, was reportedly upset with his ex-girlfriend so he drove his car into her apartment building Tuesday afternoon.
His white four-door sedan smashed through the front windows of her ground-floor apartment in Fort Pierce, Florida.
The car then caught fire, which caused an explosion that was caught on video by a neighbor.
Philbert died at the scene, but no one else was injured. Five adults and one toddler escaped through a back door.
http://i.imgur.com/0b6mzxB.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0b6mzxB.jpg
Eileen Cuevas, 26, said her mother, Philbert's ex-girlfriend, was in the front room when she saw him driving towards their apartment.
After he drove through their living room, Cuevas said she grabbed her three-year-old son, her mother and her grandmother and they left through the back door.
As they were leaving, the building and car had both caught fire.
'I just wanted people to help him because I saw his body burning,' Cuevas told TC Palm.
http://i.imgur.com/NW1zdHq.jpg
'You never want to see a thing like that. I saw his body, everything on fire.'
She told the outlet she still doesn't know why he did it.
'It's very personal. It's still weird talking about it. He was trying to get to my mom. It was meant for everybody that was in the house,' Cuevas said.
'I mean, the man had four or five propane tanks in the car. They were friends and it turned out really bad. This is very personal for our family, so it's kind of touchy.'
Fort Pierce Police Department spokesman Ed Cunningham said they believe Philbert and his ex-girlfriend got into an argument when he showed up at her apartment on Tuesday morning because he didn't like something he saw inside, WPTV reported.
Several hours later he intentionally drove into the building with four propane tanks in his car, three in the back seat and one in the passenger seat.
'He intended to do damage,' Cunningham said.
'He raced his car into this apartment where five people were, intending to kill them, blow the place up, or create some kind of havoc.'
Philbert has a history of domestic trouble with the woman he targeted, according to police.
Rescue crews from the St. Lucie County Fire District responded to the scene at 12.48pm.
In a video taken by neighbor Kathy Toledo, sirens can be heard in the background as the flames engulf the car and the part of the building above it.
Toledo explains that she lives in an apartment next door and that her husband helped bring an elderly woman down the stairs from the apartment directly above the fire.
As she explains the situation, one of the propane tanks explodes, frighting the people watching the scene.
Kathy's husband Pablo Toledo later told TC Palm that a woman on the second floor balcony called for his help.
'She was engulfed in smoke, so that's why I had to act,' he said.
'So I just ran up there. I really didn't think about the fire was going to get me. I just ran up there, grabbed her and came down. She continued thanking me.'
All eight units in the apartment complex were damaged in the fire.
The Fire District said that the American Red Cross was notified to help 13 adults and five children who had been living in the apartment building.
The Fire District, Fort Pierce police and the state Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the incident.