OBERLIN, Ohio – Authorities say a man who stepped into traffic and set himself on fire on a northeast Ohio highway has been connected to a woman found dead in a Cleveland home.
Cleveland police said Tuesday that Hugo Ramos of Cleveland is a suspect in the slaying of the woman, whose name and cause of death haven’t been released. Her body was found based on information from Ramos.
Ramos, 28, pulled to the side of U.S. Route 20 east of state Route 58 in Pittsfield Township, 35 miles west of Cleveland, just before 11:00 Monday morning and stepped into the path of an oncoming truck, Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Craig Cvetan said.
After he was hit, Cvetan says Ramos got up, grabbed a container of gasoline from his car, swallowed some of it, poured the rest on his body and then set himself on fire as three children sat in his car.
Cvetan says a bystander extinguished the blaze as troopers from the Patrol’s Elyria post responded.
Ramos was flown to a Cleveland hospital where he was in critical condition Monday afternoon.