Tasered man 'burst into flames'

July 21, 2009
BBC News

A man in Western Australia was engulfed in flames when police officers fired a Taser stun gun at him. The police say they used the Taser on Ronald Mitchell, 36, when he ran at them carrying a container of petrol and a cigarette lighter. They said that Mr Mitchell, who lives in a remote Aboriginal community, had been sniffing petrol. They suggested the cigarette lighter started the fire. Mr Mitchell is in critical condition in hospital with third degree burns.

Bare hands

The Western Australian police say they went to the community of Warburton, about 1,500 kms (950 miles) north of Perth, in response to a complaint. Mr Mitchell came out of the house, and they used the Taser when he refused to stop running towards them. Mr Mitchell burst into flames. One officer pushed him to the ground and smothered the fire with his bare hands, police said. His sister told The Australian newspaper that her brother had been sniffing petrol. "He must have put petrol on his face, then the policeman shot him with the Taser, that's when the flames happened," she said.

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said Mr Mitchell was a known violent offender, and defended the police officers' use of the Taser weapon. He told reporters: "The only other choice they would have had is to use a police-issue firearm, and the consequences would almost certainly have been far more grave." He said the police internal affairs department would investigate the incident, saying there was "a very strong possibility that the fire was caused by the lighter in the hand of the offender".

Review call

Mr Mitchell was charged with assault to prevent arrest and possession of a sniffing substance. Mr Dennis Eggington, the Chief Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, called for an urgent review of Taser use. Aboriginal people, he said, were often in poor health, which made them particularly vulnerable to stun weapons and electric shock. A Taser works by firing two barbs which penetrate the skin and discharge 50,000 volts along two copper wires attached to the gun.

Amnesty International has called them "potentially lethal".

Cop fires Taser, man's jacket ignites

January 4, 2008
By Rosalio Ahumada, Modesto Bee

The jacket of a Ripon man burst into flames when an officer fired a Taser at him Saturday morning after the man, who was driving a stolen motorcycle, led officers in a two-mile pursuit in Modesto, police said.

Modesto police Sgt. Craig Plante said Rocky Snell, 31, was not injured. He said Snell did not complain of pain when he was examined by officers, and a nurse at the Stanislaus County Jail confirmed Snell was not injured.

Plante said the flames partially singed the left front of Snell's hair and his left eyebrow. He said Snell was arrested on suspicion of vehicle theft and evading a peace officer.

The three officers, who jumped on Snell and put out the fire, also were not injured, Plante said. After Snell was in custody, the officers learned the fire started when gasoline from the motorcycle had spilled on Snell before the Taser was used to deliver an electric jolt to subdue him.

The fiery incident started at 6:10 a.m. when an officer spotted Snell driving a 2002 Yamaha motorcycle near Tully Road and West Orangeburg Avenue in central Modesto, police said.

Plante said the motorcycle's headlight was not on, so the officer attempted a traffic stop. Snell refused to stop and the chase started, police said. Plante said he did not know the speeds reached during the chase.

The chase ended shortly after it started near the railroad crossing just east of College Avenue and West Rumble Road near Davis Community Park.

Plante said the motorcycle hit the side of a police car, but officers still were investigating the crash.

"The motorcycle bounces off the car, then the motor- cycle just fell on its side," Plante said.

Snell ran from the officers, Plante said. The officers didn't know that the motorcycle's gas cap was off when the bike crashed.

Gasoline spilled out of the gas tank and onto Snell's jacket, Plante said. "It was a gas cap that had a lock," Plante said. "He might have pried it off to keep putting gas into the motorcycle, but I'm just guessing on that."

The officers got out of their cars and chased Snell, who kept running when the officers ordered him to stop, police said. Modesto police spokesman Sgt. Brian Findlen said officer Cameron Cromwell pulled out a Taser and fired it at Snell.

Darts hit puffy jacket

A Taser resembles a handgun and shoots darts that deliver 50,000 volts of electricity. Plante said the Taser darts hit Snell's puffy, black Raiders jacket. He said flames immediately ignited on the jacket and spread toward Snell's head. It appears that the Taser's electrical current ignited the gasoline on Snell's jacket, Plante said.

For a second, the officers watched in shock as the fire erupted, Plante said. A suspect is not supposed to catch fire when using a Taser, he said. Officers Cromwell, Larry Meyer and Bradley Beavers quickly got over their surprise and leapt to put out the flames. "They pushed the man to the ground and ripped off his jacket," Plante said. "They stomped on the jacket and put out the fire. They were now in lifesaving mode."

He said the officers quickly went back to apprehension mode after the fire was out and handcuffed Snell, who was taken into custody without further incident. Snell was expected to be booked at the Stanislaus County Jail, police said. His family could not be reached for comment Saturday evening.

SIU concludes investigation into the use of taser by a Hamilton police service officer

TASER INTERNATIONAL
NOTE TO FILE
ADD TO WARNING BULLETIN:
Avoid using tasers on people suspected to have a can of hair spray hidden in their waistband.

TORONTO, June 2 /CNW/ - The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has determined that there are no reasonable grounds to believe that an officer of the Hamilton Police Service committed a criminal offence during his arrest of a distraught individual during a domestic dispute last month. Mr. James Cornish, Director of the SIU, has concluded that "...in my view, the arrest of this man was lawful, the use of force was justified and that the force used was not unreasonable in the attempt to overcome the resistance being offered."

On April 17, 2008 at 8:55 p.m., three officers responded to a disturbance call at an apartment on Queenston Road in Hamilton. A man, who initially denied them entry, shouted through the door that he had a gun and would shoot. He had also thrown objects from the fourth-floor balcony, including toilet paper that he had lit on fire.

Believing that a woman could be in the apartment and realizing that the man was a potential danger to himself, officers pushed their way through the door that had been barricaded by a couch and mattress, and entered the darkened apartment with flashlights. In the effort to subdue the man, one of the officers discharged his Taser weapon. Suddenly, the man caught on fire.

Officers, surprised by the fire, acted quickly to extinguish the flames by pushing the man to the floor and patting out the flames. The man was treated in hospital for burns to his leg, thigh and stomach area.

Subsequent investigation revealed that the man had concealed a can of hair spray in the waistband of his trousers and had placed knives placed throughout the apartment in different locations. When the officer fired his Taser, it inadvertently struck the aerosol can thus, unintentionally, igniting the contents.

"These officers were attending a volatile situation where a distraught man was engaged in destructive and potentially dangerous behaviour. The man was uttering threats to the officers in an attempt to keep them from entering his apartment. They had ample justification to enter the man's apartment and, indeed, could well have been the subject of criticism if they did not do so."

Beware - TASER device can ignite explosive materials, liquids or vapors

Authorities in San Angelo, Texas are probing what role the taser may have had in igniting a man who had doused himself with gasoline and whether the taser or the lighter that was on the porch nearby could have contributed to setting this man on fire.

Juan Flores Lopez, 47, died yesterday at a Lubbock hospital.

"We don't know what ignited the fire," police Lt. Curtis Milbourn said.

Taser International warns that tasers, gasoline and lighters are a dangerous combination to be avoided. On its website, under the heading "Law Enforcement Warnings", I found - among other warnings - the following:

To minimize the risk of injury during or from deployment, follow these guidelines:

"Beware - TASER device can ignite explosive materials, liquids or vapors. These include gasoline, other flammables, explosive materials, liquids or vapors (eg., gases found in sewer lines, methamphetamine labs, and butane-type lighters). Some self-defence sprays use flammable carriers such as alcohol and could be dangerous to use in immediate conjunction with TASER devices."