A crowd of people was reportedly heard shouting “light them up” after a man approached several police officers and poured gasoline over them as they were arresting a reckless driver.
While the incident took place in Basildon, England, back in 2019, the shocking footage from the scene has just been released in BBC’s documentary Critical Incident.
Recalling the incident, officers who were on duty explained that they were in pursuit of a man wanted for reckless driving.
Following an 8-mile chase, which also involved a helicopter, the police caught the suspect and gathered around him to arrest him.
At that moment, a crowd of a few dozen people gathered in the area to watch the incident unfold. Meanwhile, a man wielding a petrol can accosted the cops and doused the officers in gasoline.
After the man, who was later identified as 28-year-old Justin Jackson, doused the cops in gasoline, the crowd allegedly called for the officers to be set on fire.
“Who’s got matches, who’s got a lighter, let’s set them on fire,” one officer recalled the crowd saying.
Confirming this was also Chief Inspector Jonathan Baldwin who 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.”
As the inspector added, “one match, one lighter, one spark could result in us going up in flames and being disfigured for life or possibly even dead.”
Speaking of the shocking attack on the police was also PC Matthew Cutts who stroke Jackson with a baton after seeing him douse his colleagues in petrol.
“I could smell petrol so I sort of fumbled around to get my baton out but once I’ve got it out I’ve put it behind my head and just struck him in line with my training,” he said.
“It’s not a random act of violence, it’s a controlled measure that we are taught to use to get people away from us.”
Following the attack, a group of nearly one hundred police officers stormed the area to assist the police officers. Several people were reportedly arrested whereas Jackson pleaded guilty to the use of a noxious substance with intent to cause injury to eight police officers.
Replaced!