A city council member in the southern Virginia community of Danville was doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire Wednesday by an attacker who was taken into police custody a short while later, authorities said.
The victim, J. Lee Vogler, 38, is one of nine council members in a city of about 42,000 people on Virginia’s border with North Carolina, about 150 miles southwest of Richmond. He was attacked at the offices of a regional magazine where he worked. Vogler is the managing partner of Andrew Brooks Media Group, which owns several publications.
Vogler was airlifted to a medical facility for treatment, and the extent of his injuries was not immediately known, police said. The suspected attacker was identified by police as Shotsie Michael Buck Hayes, 29, of Danville. Police said he fled the scene after setting Vogler on fire.
After being arrested several blocks away, he was charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding, police said. It was not immediately clear if he is represented by a lawyer.
“Please keep our fellow councilman in your prayers,” the city’s vice-mayor, James Buckner, said in a brief interview Wednesday.
“Based on the investigation at the time of this release, the victim and the suspect are known to each other and the attack stems from a personal matter not related to the victim’s position on Danville City Council or any other political affiliation,” the police statement said.
Andrew Brooks, the publishing company’s owner, said an associate publisher, Paul Seiple, called him Wednesday to say what happened.
“Somebody set Lee on fire,” Brooks recalled Seiple telling him.
“What happened?” Brooks said he asked. He said Seiple told him that a man carrying a bucket of flammable liquid “forced his way into our office.” Referring to Seiple, Brooks said: “The next thing he knew, Lee was running through the office [soaked] in flammable liquid with a guy chasing him. Lee was telling him to call 911. So after [Seiple] got off the phone with police, he got out front and the fire was already being put out.”
Vogler was first elected to the council in 2012. He was 24 at the time, the youngest person to hold the position, according to his biography. He also serves as chairman of the Danville-Pittsylvania County Regional Industrial Facility Authority.
According to a video posted on his Facebook page this year, Vogler, a Republican, considered running for an open seat in Virginia’s House of Delegates but opted instead to remain a city council member. A campaign website for reelection to his council seat says Vogler led an effort to establish a bike-share program in Danville and has voted to lower personal property taxes and recruit businesses to the area.
“It was terrifying for me, and I wasn’t even there,” Brooks said. He said Vogler is the father of a girl and a boy and coaches their sports teams. As a council member, he “is constantly going above and beyond,” Brooks said.
“We’re a town like everywhere else,” he said. “We have our problems. But setting someone on fire over a personal issue is a pretty extreme reaction to hurt.”
