A 26-year-old Florida man is fighting for his life after a deputy reportedly used his stun gun on the victim while he was covered in gasoline.
The incident occurred on February 27th at a Wawa in Orange County.
An attorney for Jean Beretta claims that deputies “bum-rushed” his client while he was filling his motorcycle and caused the bike to fall over and spill the gas.
A deputy then fired his taser at Beretta and caused an explosion at the pump, burning Beretta and three other deputies.
Authorities say they confronted Beretta because he fled from a traffic stop where they were investigating the report of a group of motorcyclist flashing guns at other drivers.
Deputies located Beretta a short time later, filling up his motorcycle at a Wawa gas station.
Beretta’s attorney claims that while Beretta was participating in the tribute ride, he did not have a gun, nor was he fleeing from police:
“If he was fleeing, ask yourself why would he spend a minute and a half putting gas in his bike which was only a mile away from his home,” he said.
The attorney also claimed that the deputy did not use good judgement when deploying the weapon:
“An elementary child knows that you can’t deploy electricity or anything that’s flammable around gasoline,” said Nejame.
Beretta has third-degree burns over 75% of his body and spent 10 weeks in the hospital.
He is still expected to undergo more treatments.
Nejame is asking for the deputies to take accountability and show transparency:
“Where are the body cameras the officers are given so we can see the other angles, where are the reports of all of the deputies who were there. We’ve got none of them,” said Nejame.
He is asking for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement take over the investigation.