Osceola County, Florida Deputy David Crawford fired his Taser at motorcyclist Jean Barreto at a gas station. The ensuing fire burned Barreto over 75% of his body. A jury just found Deputy Crawford not guilty of criminal culpable negligence. The civil litigation has just started:

https://nypost.com/2024/11/25/us-new...ire-acquitted/

Better-working Link

Apparently the "biker" was running with a group and they were flashing guns at cars, it got called in and they followed this guy to a gas station with a helicopter. The suspect didn't have a firearm.

Units arrived, he's suspected to have a firearm, and gets tackled while fueling his crotch rocket, he's sitting on it, so if he saw cops he'd drop the hose and run easily. he gets tackled off the bike while fueling and gas gets on the bike, him, the cop, the ground etc.

Video from the officer, it doesn't look like he fired it, he picked it up off the ground from another officer and when it was set down it fired and the gas ignited.

Looks to me like he tried to drive-stun the suspect and the gas ignited. If he'd paid attention in in Taser class he'd know that a gasoline rich environment is not an appropriate place to deploy a taser. Now he knows why. It was a mistake...I think the court was correct to drop the criminal case but he's probably going to lose that civil suit.

Without all the context, it does show the taser out in less than ideal surroundings, tho the chaos unfolding in mere seconds. If suspect had been compliant would it have had same outcome? ? Don't start none - won't be none.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
It was a mistake....

You’re absolutely right of course, but when incidents like this happen they prompt me to wonder why.

Depending upon when the officer got his TASER training and under the circumstances of the fight he may have been oblivious to the danger posed by the gasoline. Even if he had used the CEW regularly and each time he’d been at least subconsciously aware of, “Don’t shoot him in the face or nuts,” how many times had he ever been fighting with someone covered in gasoline? Plus, just like the officer who screams and jumps back in surprise when someone shoves a gun in her face or has trouble holstering a pistol during an assassination attempt, he probably had other things on his mind than the gasoline.

And yes, I also agree completely with, “Don’t start none ….”

But thoughts like that are why I’ll probably never get selected for a jury deciding liability in a case like that.

Some the articles I've read say he didn't fire it, that it was tossed to the side and may not have had a safety engaged and fired when it hit the ground.

quote:

Some the articles I've read say he didn't fire it, that it was tossed to the side and may not have had a safety engaged and fired when it hit the ground

I don't buy that for a second. He clearly say's "You're going to get tased again, dude!" and then discharges it.

I have no problem with the use of force, just with the tool being used in that setting. Dude absolutely brought it on himself by resisting, but better choices could have resolved things without a fireball.

quote:

Depending upon when the officer got his TASER training and under the circumstances of the fight he may have been oblivious to the danger posed by the gasoline. Even if he had used the CEW regularly and each time he’d been at least subconsciously aware of, “Don’t shoot him in the face or nuts,” how many times had he ever been fighting with someone covered in gasoline?

If his department is in compliance with Axon's requirements, operators should be recertifying annually. The device in question is a Taser 7, which requires an ongoing support contract with Axon, so presumably they should be up to date. The flammable liquids thing has also been part of the curriculum for years, and it's also part of the annual refresher (coincidentally, I just taught one today, so it's very fresh in my mind!).

Believe it or not, even though I work in small town no-where-ville there have been a couple of times in my career where I've had to deal with belligerents covered in gas, and we had to make sure we told arriving backup "No Taser!" as they rolled up to make sure we didn't end up in a similar situation.

The Taser is a good tool, and I've personally seen it save lives, but it absolutely has its limitations, and officers get over-dependent on it to solve problems that would be better handled in other ways.

From one of the local sources that stated it wasn't his Taser. Either way it fired, and shouldn't have been pulled out.

I get why he tackled the guy, those sport bikes can easily outrun todays LEO transportation, and the riders tuck the plates or remove them and will run like a jackrabbit at the drop of a pen.
Link

quote:

Crawford's defense was that he believed Barreto was armed, the fire was an accident, the taser was another deputy's, and that his training dictated that firing a taser around gas was inadvisable. The trigger on the taser, Crawford and his defense said, was pulled as he tried to toss it away from Barreto and the gas pump.