Woman Set Afire in Landover

A Prince George's County landscaper doused his girlfriend with gasoline and set her on fire yesterday, police said, in an attack that eerily resembled a crime that horrified the region last fall.

While she was still ablaze, the woman, 39, ran several blocks to her home in Landover, burst through the door and told family members to call 911.

She suffered second- and third-degree burns to her upper body and was in critical but stable condition at a hospital. Police said they expect that she will survive. Anthony Willoughby, 40, was in police custody shortly after the incident, police said. He was charged with first- and second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault and malicious burning and was being held without bond.

Police would not release the woman's name last night because they were still notifying other family members. Relatives and a neighbor interviewed provided conflicting information on her identity.

The woman had a restraining order against Willoughby, according to police, but a family member said the couple had made up. Late Friday night after work, she went to visit him at his home in the 2100 block of Ohio Avenue, police said. They got into an argument that was loud enough for neighbors to hear, police said. It is unclear what they argued about.

The burning is similar to the case of another Prince George's woman, Yvette Cade, 32, who was set on fire in October by her estranged husband at a T-Mobile store in Clinton where she was working. As she nurses severe burns on her face, head and torso, Cade has tried to use her recovery to inspire others, gaining national attention with an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in May.

"I am sick to my stomach after hearing this news," Cade said yesterday in a prepared statement. "No one deserves to be burned, and this tragedy brings back all of the memories of what happened to me."

Cade was in Ohio yesterday, but she returned to the Washington area last night in case the family of yesterday's burn victim wants to reach out to her, said Cade's sister Shereen Jackson.

Yesterday's attack happened about 3 a.m., when Willoughby allegedly dislodged a gasoline tank from a garden weed-whacker and used it to douse the woman in fuel, Cpl. Clinton Copeland said. He then set her on fire and fled, Copeland said.

She ran to her family's home in the 2400 block of Kent Village Place, in the Kentland area, where 911 was called at 3:08 a.m.

Cheryl Garry, who said she is a cousin of the woman, said that as her family was calling an ambulance, the victim was reassuring everyone that she would be all right.

Garry said Willoughby had recently choked the woman, prompting her to take the matter to court. Garry said they had since made up.