Jean Baretto, a 26-year-old man from Florida, has spent at least 10 weeks in the hospital battling life-threatening burns, after a Sheriff's deputy from Osceola County 'body-slammed' him and tased him at a gas station, triggering a fire that engulfed his body in flames.
The incident reportedly occurred in an area under the jurisdiction of Orange County in the United States on 27 February.
NeJame Law offices, in a Facebook post, described the horrific incident in detail saying,
"After he was pumping gas for over a minute and a half, Mr Barreto was unknowingly bum-rushed from behind with the flying tackle by an Osceola county sheriff’s deputy... As Mr Barreto was knocked over from behind, by this surprise take down from a then unknown force, his dirt bike also went down, spilling gas over Mr Barreto and the Deputy."NeJame Law
The post added, a second deputy, also out of his jurisdiction, tackled Baretto with a taser at that moment, igniting the gasoline which covered his body. The fire ultimately left four people injured, including the deputy who attacked Baretto.
As per the post, Baretto is a Hispanic male with no prior criminal record, and is a Fedex employee.
Third Degree Burns on 75% of His Body, Say Lawyers
Baretto's lawyers indicated that he is still undergoing “excruciating” treatment, after he sustained "third-degree burns on approximately 75 percent of his body, front and back from his feet to the bottom of his neck."
He will be placed in a medically induced coma over the next couple of days, as he undergoes debridement (removal of necrotic tissue) ahead of first of its kind treatment at Orlando Health, which has been growing skin tissue taken from a 4 inch patch of unburned skin, to hopefully commence grafting, the post added.
Further, despite demands of transparency and accountability from Baretto's lawyers, Osceola County Sheriff Lopez and his department have not yet handed over critical evidence in the case, including body cam footage and deputies' reports.
"This is especially alarming since the Osceola County Sheriff's Office is conducting its own internal investigation rather than turning this horrific matter over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which it should have," the lawyers said in the post.
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