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Surveillance video reveals arsonist, can you identify him?

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office on Thursday released video of an arsonist dressed in a business suit, caught in the act by a surveillance camera. The fire torched Salon Touchee' on June 18. The salon is located in a shopping center on U.S. 1 near Palm Beach Gardens. The flames from the fire and water from the sprinkler system destroyed the business.

In the video, you can see a man in a suit throwing objects through the salon's windows. A brick shatters the bottom of the door. Then the man breaks out the rest of the glass and goes inside, pouring liquid from a can throughout the shop-- undoubtedly the flammable liquid investigators found at the scene.

After a couple failed tries at starting a fire, the man is seen going back into the salon to retrieve his fuse. The third time it works. In seconds, the salon is engulfed in flames. The man in the suit runs away, but barely avoids the flames himself.

"Let me tell you, I ask God for mercy for him," said an emotional Nelcida, or Nancy, Irizarry, the owner of the shop. She made the remarks shortly after seeing the surveillance video for the first time.

"It breaks my heart, it breaks my heart," Irizarry continued. "I'm sick. My family's sick. This salon, it took me 16 years to put everything together. That was everything I had and it's gone."

Irizarry says Monday she will begin taking customers at another shop close by. Her other hair stylists have also set up shop in other locations.

Sources have told us the man in the video could be a husband or boyfriend of an unhappy customer at the salon. But the Sheriff's Office has not made an arrest. Detectives ask anyone who recognizes the man in the video to call the Sheriff's Office or Palm Beach County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-458-TIPS.


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