ALBANY, N.Y. — Two police officers ran out of their station’s lobby and closed the door behind them after a spark from a stun gun used on an agitated man caused him to burst into flames, videos released by the New York State Attorney’s Office shows.
The video, released Friday by New York Attorney General Letitia James, is part of an investigation into the Oct. 30 confrontation after the man, Jason Jones, 29, of Catskill, New York, died last month, the Albany Times-Union reported.
A third officer involved in the fatal encounter also fled the scene, the newspaper reported.
WARNING DISTURBING VIDEO: The AG releases video showing Catskill PD officers running after using a stun gun against an agitated man, causing him to burst into flames.
— Mikhaela Singleton (@MSingletonTV) January 7, 2022
Analysis from a police training expert and the response from the family's lawyer here👇https://t.co/g653OKbfEd
Jones died Dec. 15 after spending 47 days on a ventilator in an intensive care unit at a Syracuse hospital, according to the newspaper. He was shocked after putting hand sanitizer on his body before he came in contact with the stun gun, WRGB-TV reported.
“The release of this footage is not an expression of any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of any party in a criminal matter or any opinion as to how or whether any individual may be charged with a crime,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
The full videos can be viewed on the attorney general’s website;
According to the video, which has no sound, Jones enters the lobby of the small police station in an agitated and possibly inebriated state, The New York Times reported. Jones can be seen shoving a table and banging on a glass partition.
Two officers, who trailed Jones into the lobby, talked to him in an effort to calm him, the newspaper reported. Jones leaves 20 minutes later but returns and begins to squirt hand sanitizer on his head and body, the video shows.
>> Hand sanitizer blamed after stun gun causes New York man to catch fire
The encounter, which was caught by a security camera, then shows one officer firing a stun gun at Jones, WTEN-TV reported. Jones is out of the camera’s frame, but suddenly the officers leave the room. Jones, now visible on the camera, is engulfed in flames on his head and body.
Many hand sanitizers contain ethyl alcohol, which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “readily evaporates at room temperature into an ignitable vapor and is considered a flammable liquid.”
James said in a statement that her office’s investigation was continuing and that the footage was being “released to the public in order to increase transparency and strengthen public trust in these matters.”
Kevin Luibrand, a lawyer for Jones’ family, said that he and his clients had reviewed the footage about two weeks ago.
“It just confirms it in the vividness that only such an incident can be captured,” Luibrand told the Times.
After the stun gun was fired, more footage shows the officers returning and trying to help Jones, according to the newspaper.
“Without hearing what was said, we can’t evaluate how effective de-escalation may have been in this case,” John Cooney, a former Troy Police Department officer and a police training expert, told WTEN.
A law enforcement official who has extensive experience training police officers on the use of force -- and who spoke to the Times Union on the condition of anonymity because he is not involved in the Catskill investigation -- said the officers should have immediately shifted their actions to assist Jones when he caught fire.
“Once the threat has been stopped, you don’t just say, ‘I’m going to let that person burn,’” the official said.
Catskill police Chief David Darling did not respond to calls seeking comment on Friday, the Times reported.
“I think they were afraid he was going to hurt himself, and that’s what started it,” Chief Darling told the Times Union in November, calling the episode “horrible.”
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