A Florida dirt bike rider is fighting for his life with severe burns covering 75% of his body after a sheriff’s officer Tased him at a petrol station, igniting a fire that “cooked” the victim alive.
According to his lawyers who wrote about the burns, which cover three-quarters of his body, “He is wrapped and unwrapped in gauze daily, bleeding profusely still as he doesn’t have the requisite amount of skin to contain his body fluids.”
The NeJame Law organization said, Jean Barreto, 26, received third-degree burns on over 75 percent of his body during the incident on Feb. 27 at a Wawa petrol station in Orlando.
Cops say Barreto, who was on his way home from a motorbike rally that was broken up by cops due to a recent ‘zero tolerance’ police implemented by the force against groups of bikers, fled the traffic stop on his bike and was tracked down to the Wawa – claims his attorney said they have yet to prove as of Wednesday, nearly three months after the incident
Barreto, a FedEx employee with no prior criminal record, stopped at a Wawa gas station less than a mile from his home, he was coming from a gathering of motorbike enthusiasts that had been broken up by Osceola County deputies.
Barreto was standing near the gas station when he was tackled and body-slammed to the ground by an Osceola County sheriff’s deputy who had been following him during an attempted traffic stop, according to surveillance video from the area.
The attorneys representing the Florida dirt bike rider Jean Bareto, who was caught in an explosive gas station fire after a deputy tasered him while he was pumping gas are demanding the state intervene in cops’ investigation of the incident and reprimand the officer responsible.
“As Mr. Barreto was knocked over from behind, by this surprise take down [sic] from a then-unknown force, his dirt bike also went down, spilling gas over Mr. Barreto and the Deputy,” the statement read.
At that point, at least three more Osceola County patrol cars had arrived on the scene.
When one of the arriving deputies observed Barreto and his colleague on the ground, he used his Taser on the biker, enveloping the majority of his body in flames, as seen in the graphic video. Half of the deputy who tackled Barreto was also burned in the third degree.
Barreto’s lawyers say the fireball was “created by the reckless, idiotic, unneeded” tasing and injured four persons, including three deputies. They say that the flames “cooked” Barreto alive.
His lawyers also said, nearly three months later, Barreto is still undergoing “excruciating” treatment.
“He is without skin on most of his body, his skin having been burned off,” they stated.
Watch it here: NbCnews/Video
Sources: Dailymail, Ndtv, Nbcnews
