Osceola deputy charged in February 2022 arrest after stun gun caused explosion at gas pump

Subhead

 

 

Image
  • Video from a Sheriff's helicopter shows deputies using a fire extinguisher to put out flames on Jean Barreto at an Orange County Wawa in a Feb. 27, 2022 incident. PHOTO/OSCEOLA CO. SHERIFF'S OFFICE
    Video from a Sheriff's helicopter shows deputies using a fire extinguisher to put out flames on Jean Barreto at an Orange County Wawa in a Feb. 27, 2022 incident. PHOTO/OSCEOLA CO. SHERIFF'S OFFICE
Body

Nearly a year after the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office recommended charges against one of their own in a Feb. 27, 2022 chase of a motorcyclist that led to his receiving burns from a fire at a gas pump, State Attorney Monique  Worrell has announced Thursday that charges have been filed.

Deputy David Crawford has been charged with one count of culpable negligence with personal injury, a first-degree misdemeanor, following a pursuit that ended with an explosion at a Wawa gas station on Central Florida Parkway. Crawford has been on administrative leave since the Sheriff's Office recommended the charges a year ago.

Jean Barreto, 26, of Orlando, was apprehended at the Wawa in Orange County, and during his takedown at a gas pump, he, Crawford and another arresting officer were badly burned. The Fire Marshall determined the fire was caused by a taser being fired by an open gasoline spill.

Crawford tackled Barreto while other deputies assisted in apprehending him for the traffic violation that occurred in Osceola County. A struggle ensued and, according to Worrell's office, "Crawford recklessly deployed a taser at the victim who had become soaked in gasoline, and as a result, caused the explosion that injured the victim. The victim in the case has suffered second and third-degree burns across at least 75% of his body, injuries he is still recovering from."

Last May, Sheriff Marcos Lopez showed media helicopter footage of his deputies pursuing a cyclist, later determined to be Barreto, after 911 calls received about motorcyclists brandishing firearms at them. He eluded using Michigan and Donegan Avenues, then headed northbound on Orange Blossom Trail, running numerous red lights.

“It’s this kind of stuff we have zero tolerance for,” Lopez said last year. “We have to stop this type of behavior before one of these bikes goes through a windshield. It’s reckless and brought danger to himself and members of the community.”

As shown in the video footage, during the takedown, the bike fell over, its gas cap loosened and gas spilled, the Sheriff’s report stated. A taser that had already been deployed was off to the side. As this was going on, Crawford said, “You’re about to get tased again, dude,” and then the fireball erupted. The Fire Marshall determined the fire was caused by a taser being fired by an open gasoline spill.

Lopez maintained a fire extinguisher was deployed on Barreto first, then the deputies who were burned, including Crawford, who is being charged because, “Under the law, his actions were reckless.”

Attorneys Mark NeJame and Albert Yonfa — the same who are representing those involved in an incident later in 2022 with Sheriff’s deputies at west Kissimmee Target — represented Barreto and asked publicly, “If he was fleeing, why would stop for a minute and a half to get gas? Nobody who is fleeing or eluding does that. Anyone who says he was brandishing a gun is lying.”

NeJame went as far at that time as to call for the FDLE or the Department of Justice to take this case over.

“There are too many questions left unanswered. It’s frightening, and we have to get answers. “Did they ask permission to come into Orange County? If not, then they are civilians taking law into their own hands out of their jurisdiction. Why have we not seen that request? Does it exist? If not, doesn’t this just become vigilante justice?”