Kaysville • Police here Thursday played video of a suicidal subject and a police officer on fire and burning last week in a gas station bathroom.
Flames are seen on the suicidal man and Officer Robert Jackson as they emerge from the restroom and into the Chevron station’s convenience store. About 8 seconds pass before a police sergeant douses them with a fire extinguisher.
The suicidal man had poured gasoline on himself. Jackson, 26, who joined a Thursday news conference via a video link from the University of Utah burn center, said he trying to talk to the man and “de-escalate” the situation when the man ignited himself with a lighter.
“My job is to protect lives, and if I have to risk mine to save somebody else’s, I’m going to do that,” Jackson said Thursday. He is still recovering from burns to his legs and his left arm.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kaysville Police Chief Sol Oberg, left, describes the surveillance footage from a gas station convenience store where a suicidal subject call on April 5, 2018, injured officers Robert Jackson, on screen, recovering at the University Hospital burn unit, Sgt. Shawn McKinnon, center, and officers Cade Bradshaw and Lacy Turner. The four officers responded to a man who entered a Chevron gas station store and doused himself with gasoline. As the officers tried to get a lighter from the manÕs hand, the man lit himself on fire.
Three other officers who responded to the gas station store — Sgt. Shawn McKinnon, who deployed the extinguisher, and officers Lacy Turner and Cade Bradshaw — suffered less severe burn injuries. McKinnon and Turner have returned to work.
Bradshaw on Thursday stood in civilian clothes with bandages covering parts of both forearms. He said he also suffered a burn to his face that had healed better. He left the news conference early on Thursday to go to a doctor’s appointment.
The suicidal man also was taken to the U’s burn center for treatment, where he remained in critical condition, according to Kaysville police chief Sol Oberg.
On April 5, the man poured gasoline on himself and went into the restroom of a Chevron at 200 North and 300 West. The station also has a McDonald’s restaurant inside.
Oberg and his officers declined to disclose certain details Thursday, including what the suspect said to officers, explaining that a criminal investigation is still underway. But Jackson said he was talking to the man as Bradshaw, Turner and McKinnon stood behind him in the restroom or the corridor.
“They did a commendable job of trying to calm that down and reassure him he wasn’t in trouble and reassure him they were there to help him,” Oberg said.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kaysville Officer Robert Jackson lies on the floor of a convenience store gas station after a suicidal subject lit himself on fire on April 5, 2018, subsequently burning several officers who were trying to calm him down. The Kaysville police department aired the surveillance footage during a press event featuring the officers involved, including Jackson who appeared by video as he recovers from his injuries at University hospital.
Turner said Jackson made a move for a Zippo-style lighter the man was holding. That’s when the lighter sparked and ignited the gasoline.
The video, which was shown to news reporters Thursday, comes from two cameras mounted in the Chevron’s convenience store. The better of the two angles shows the man and Jackson stumbling out of the restroom in flames. One other police officer tumbles over them.
Both the suspect and Jackson fell where the corridor meets the store, where McKinnon sprayed them. Jackson came to rest beside a soda fountain; the suspect laid between the glass-door refrigerators and a shelf of dry goods.
Turner, who called Jackson “a hero,” said she was thinking of customers and employees who might be in the gas station and restaurant.
“There was more than just us and him in that room,” she said.
Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Four police officers were taken to the hospital after trying to save the life of a man who poured gasoline over himself in the bathroom of the Chevron Top Stop at 300 West and 200 South in Kaysville, Thursday, April 5, 2018. The man was taken in a helicopter to UofU Medical Center. A piece of clothing - perhaps a pair of pants - lays on the cement outside the convenience store as police conduct their investigation.
Bradshaw said the ordeal has been difficult for his family. Yet, he said he feels sorry for the suspect.
“It’s just a sad situation where he was in some point in his life where he felt he needed to do this,” Bradshaw said.
Oberg said the officers were wearing body cameras, but the police department is not yet releasing that video. The chief declined to say whether or what kind of criminal charges are being considered against the suspect.
