The New York state lawyer normal on Friday launched footage of a person bursting into flames after being tased by cops inside an upstate police station in October, an encounter that led to his dying.
The disturbing surveillance video exhibits members of the Catskill Police Division working away, leaving the person as he desperately tries to place out the flames engulfing his higher physique and head.
Jason Jones, 29, died on Dec. 15 at a hospital in Syracuse after spending six weeks in a medically-induced coma.
The workplace of New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James is investigating his dying.
The footage made public by James exhibits Jones pacing across the foyer of the police station, some 30 miles south of Albany, for about 10 minutes after talking with a number of officers on Oct. 30.
He turns into visibly agitated, taking off his short-sleeved sweatshirt and ripping his t-shirt off his massive body earlier than taking off his footwear and socks, in response to the video, which doesn't have sound.
A bit greater than 10 minutes later, Jones is seen dousing his naked torso and hair with flammable hand sanitizer from a big pump bottle that was on a desk.
Inside seconds, three officers advance in direction of him. One in all them attracts his Taser and fires it at Jones, who's out of the digital camera’s body.
Jones then bursts into flames, and comes again into the digital camera’s body as he rolls on the ground; his chest, again and head totally engulfed in hearth.
The three officers scurried away — two into one other room and a 3rd across the nook of the foyer — and left Jones alone to extinguish the fireplace, by rolling on the bottom and patting his head together with his arms for about 10 seconds, the video exhibits.
As Jones is on the ground, badly burnt and screaming in anguish, the officer who deployed the stun gun got here again within the room and appeared to attempt to get Jones’ arms behind his again as he lay on the ground. Jones was by no means handcuffed and a civilian whose face was blurred within the video got here into the station to provide him a hug.
It could be about one other quarter-hour earlier than a medic introduced in gurney, and wheeled Jones away to get therapy, in response to the video.
He died after spending 47 days on a ventilator as a result of his lungs had been so badly burned he couldn’t soak up oxygen, in response to The Albany Occasions-Union.
The newspaper reported that Jones — a former high highschool athlete in Catskill — had been at a close-by bar the place police responded to a disturbance. He reportedly walked to the station and confronted cops there.
Police had been initially treating Jones as an emotional disturbed individual, earlier than they superior on him and Tased him, in an obvious try and arrest him, the article mentioned.
“Jason was unarmed, within the police station, and never threatening anybody when the police hit him with 50,000 volts of electrical present and he ignited,” Kevin Luibrand, a lawyer for Jones’ household advised the paper.
“As an alternative of serving to Jason, the police ran out the room, shut the door and let him burn.”
A legislation enforcement skilled who trains police on using pressure reportedly mentioned officers are advised to by no means use a Taser on an individual who was uncovered to flammable liquids. He advised the paper the cops ought to have instantly tried to assist Jones after he went up in flames.
“As soon as the menace has been stopped, you don’t simply say, ‘I’m going to let that individual burn,'” the unnamed supply mentioned.
James’ workplace was tasked below a 2015 govt order with investigating deadly encounters between cops and unarmed residents.
“The discharge of this footage just isn't an expression of any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of any social gathering in a legal matter or any opinion as to how or whether or not any particular person could also be charged with a criminal offense,” James mentioned in an announcement.
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