A woman set herself on fire shortly after entering her local congressman’s office Tuesday, The Hill reports.
The unidentified woman, 43, entered Democratic Illinois Rep. Danny Davis’s office on Chicago’s West Side after 3 p.m. Tuesday. She then drank from a bottle of hand sanitizer, poured sanitizer over her body and set herself ablaze with a lighter.
Davis was not in his office at the time of the incident.
“We don’t know her and we don’t know exactly what she may have been coming for. We really don’t know why; we never got to that point,” Davis told the Chicago Tribune.
He claimed the woman spoke with his staff for a short time before she proceeded to set herself on fire.
The staff tried to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, but the woman ran out of the office while still ablaze, according to a press release from Davis’s office.
The woman remains unidentified, and did not sign into the register before the incident.
Chicago police spokeswoman Michelle Tannehill told the Tribune she was taken to Chicago’s Stronger Hospital in serious condition with burns. She is now stable.
Davis said his office is easily accessible and blames the incident on a lack of mental health services for Chicagoans.
“We have people like her … experiencing mental health challenges. And we get them almost daily,” Davis, who has been in office since 1996, said.
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