In one of the most shocking incidents of the Baltimore riots, CNN cameras caught rioters intentionally slicing open a fire hose firefighters were using to try to save a burning building.
“Police officers are trying to move down the street, because firefighters right here,” CNN correspondent Miguel Marquez reported. “They are furiously trying to get to get that hose hooked up, so that they can get that water in good enough amounts on that fire at CVS.”
The firemen eventually got the fire hydrant working. But as Marquez was interviewing a nearby bystander, a rioter took a knife and slashed open the fire hose.
“Did he see that?” he said. “Wolf, if you just saw that, they just as we were talking there, they just cut the hose with a knife… trying to thwart the efforts of the authorities to actually turn out this fire.” (VIDEO: CNN: Baltimore Rioters Threatening ‘Anybody… Who Was Not African-American’)
The same man come up and cut the hose again, in full view of CNN’s cameras. “I just watched that guy cut the hose as well,” anchor Wolf Blitzer said.
The bystander seemed positively gleeful. “That’s how I do. That’s how I do.”
“So you would rather see your neighborhood burn?” asked a shocked Marquez to a nearby protester.
“The situation is what you’re seeing here, my neighborhood is not burned right now. What you’re getting an example of is really what’s inside of everybody. For about 20 years — I’m 41– I’ve witnessed the atrocities that build up and build up,” the man replied.