Sickening moment crowd shouts ‘light them up’ as police officers doused in fuel after high-speed chase
THIS is the sickening moment a crowd shouted “light them up” as police officers were doused in fuel after a high-speed chase.
Eight cops were doused in petrol while making an arrest in Basildon, Essex in May 2019.
Officers were watching an organised event when they noticed a motorbike being ridden dangerously.
They pursued the motorbike for eight miles with a police helicopter overhead.
They stopped the rider at an estate and went to arrest him when a crowd of up to 30 people surrounded the officers.
Cops were threatened by a woman armed with a hammer before a man doused the officers in petrol.
Two officers had to be rushed to hospital after they swallowed the fuel, and had to have the liquid washed out of their eyes.
Ninety officers then rushed to the scene to help their colleagues.
PC Andrew Bird, who was at the scene, described what he saw in BBC documentary Critical Incident.
PC Bird said he saw a man “sprinting full speed towards where we were”.
“I was pretty much at the bottom of the pile,” PC Bird said. “You’ve got officers trying to get him off of me, he had his arms wrapped round my legs trying to keep hold of me.”
He said Justin Jackson, 28, then appeared holding a watering can.
PC Matthew Cutts then tried to stop Jackson – fearing he was about to throw acid at the officers.
One match, one lighter, one spark could result in us going up in flames and being disfigured for life or possibly even dead
Chief Inspector Jonathan Baldwin
PC Cutts said: “I could smell petrol so I sort of fumbled around to get my baton out but once I’ve got it I’ve put it behind my head and just struck him in line with my training.”
He said he could feel his skin stinging after being covered in petrol.
Chief Inspector Jonathan Baldwin said the officers were worried about being set on fire.
“One match, one lighter, one spark could result in us going up in flames and being disfigured for life or possibly even dead,” Chief Inspector Baldwin said.
Cops said they could hear people yelling: “Who’s got matches, who’s got a lighter, let’s set them on fire.”
Chief Inspector Baldwin said: “I was hearing them shout ‘light them up’.”
“I don’t know how we didn’t just cut and run but then that’s not the way we’re wired – we all stuck together.
“There’s something running in the core of us that says you don’t run away from the danger, you run towards it.”
Jackson was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison, while a 17-year-old from Basildon was disqualified from driving for a year and fined.
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Janine Justin, 47 was found guilty of possession of an offensive weapon and was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months, fined £140 and was told to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.
The shocking footage is released just days after Sergeant Matt Ratana was shot and killed at a police station in Croydon, South London.
Sergeant Ratana was allegedly blasted with a smuggled revolver by a suspect being held in the custody suite.
