This is crazy!! This guy burts into flames after he is tasered by a cop. Why do you ask did he burst into flames? He had been sniffing gasoline and ran outside with a gasoline container and a cigarette lighter. It could have been alot worse, if the fumes from the gas container caught fire and exploded. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534180,00.html?mrp ---------------------------------------------------------- Man Tasered After Sniffing Gas Bursts in Flames SYDNEY — A man whose relatives say had been sniffing gasoline burst into flames after a police officer Tasered him as he ran at officials carrying a container of fuel, police said Tuesday. The man, identified by his family as 36-year-old Ronald Mitchell, was in critical condition at a Perth hospital in Western Australia state following Monday's incident in Warburton, an Aboriginal community 950 miles northeast of Perth. Western Australia police said they were responding to a complaint at a house when Mitchell ran outside the house carrying a cigarette lighter and a large plastic bottle containing what they believe was fuel. When he refused to stop running toward them, one officer Tasered him, police said in a media release. The man was immediately engulfed in flames. The officer threw him to the ground and smothered the blaze with his hands, the statement said. Mitchell was charged with assault to prevent arrest and possession of a sniffing substance. An 18-year-old woman threw rocks at the officer as he tried to help, and he was later treated for a cut on his head and burns to his hands, police said. The woman was charged with two counts of assaulting an officer, police Sgt. Graham Clifford said. Two others at the house were charged with possessing a sniffing substance. Mitchell's sister, Morinda West, told The Australian newspaper that her brother had been sniffing gasoline and that when he ran out of the house he was carrying a lighter and an orange juice container full of gasoline. Police spokeswoman Susan Usher said Mitchell appeared to have received third-degree burns to about ten percent of his body. The officer who Tasered Mitchell was not suspended, Clifford said.
Can't help but be reminded of this: perhaps language nsfw Spoiler <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cV-4AErKpsU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cV-4AErKpsU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Can you blame the cops for this though, here in WA the Aboriginal Legal Services have hit out at the cops for the action taken. If the guy wasn't sniffing petrol and threatening to set alight the cops none of this would have happened.
The cop is an idiot. High voltage and the guy has a gasoline. What happens when you have an electric charge, gasoline, and some oxygen.
The cops have come out and said there was two options to ensure the safety of their officers, taser the man or shoot him. It was not as if the man was sitting on the side of the road just sniffing petrol, he was threatening police with petrol and his lighter. The safety of the officer comes before the offender any day of the week.
Wrong, option 3, I would use my amazing marksmanship to shoot the gasoline container from his hand as a bullet through a fuel container does not cause an explosion.
I am often critical of cops going for the tazer too quickly but its use here was exactly what was called for. As Dockerland noted the safety of the police has to be considered when facing an eminent threat and the cops erred on what they thought would be safest choice. Anyway even if they shot its possible that the gasoline might still go off.
I'm guessing if a guy is chasing me with a fuel container possibly containing fuel, his well-being is the last thing on my mind. The guy has a can of gasoline. What if he has a lighter? You already know he's a kook for sniffing gas and then chasing you with a gas can. The cop did nothing wrong from what I can tell in the story. I'm surprised he tried to put the fire out and burned himself in the process - hell, I'll give him credit for trying. Personally, I think he should've just shot him.
I know its bad but that story just cracked me up when I first read it, just something about the image of this putz walking out then bursting into flames
the car moves forward. if that gasoline went off, the guy holding it wouldn't have been the only one getting hurt. Good thing it didn't. I would have tried to use pepper spray.
I don't know about Aussie squad cars but I doubt they carry a bucket of water for a situation like this.
Using a gun is safer than using a taser in that situation; He could have fired a warning shot. The policeman could have started a massive fire. Don't you see the warning about static charges at the fire station?
In retrospect, it probably would have been better to use a gun than a taser, but I can't blame the cop for not thinking of it. Kudos to him for putting the guy out despite burning himself. Sniffing gasoline? That's pathetic. If you're going to get high on something, pick something with a little more cachet.
