An Arizona man says he thought he was going to die after he burst into flames when a federal wildlife officer fired a Taser at him beside a gas pump in a shocking confrontation caught on video.
The horrifying incident unfolded July 16 at the Thalypo gas station on the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation, after Clarence Coyl was followed there by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer who had allegedly spotted him and a friend driving through an open gate at the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge about 20 minutes earlier.
What began as a dispute over a possible trespassing citation quickly turned into a terrifying scene, with flames erupting near the pump moments after the officer deployed his stun gun.
Coyl told Fox 10 Phoenix that the confrontation started after the officer accused him of entering through the gate.
“He goes, ‘You guys came through the gate, didn’t you? Leave now. Get out of here,’” Coyl recalled.
Coyl said he agreed to leave, but the exchange escalated when the officer allegedly threatened to issue him a ticket.
“I’m like, ‘OK,’ and he got really snotty, and he says, ‘Well, I’ll give you a ticket,’ and I say, ‘Give me a ticket, you gotta trespass me first,’” Coyl said.
Coyl then drove to the nearby gas station, where the officer confronted him again.
Video from the encounter shows the officer, wearing dark sunglasses and a shaved head, pointing a Taser at Coyl while demanding identification.
“You’re gonna go to jail, all I’m asking for is your license right now to identify you,” the officer can be heard shouting.
Coyl repeatedly asks why he is being arrested.
“What am I being arrested for?” he says.
“You are not cooperating for having committed a crime,” the officer responds.
Coyl appears stunned by the explanation and fires back, “What? A misdemeanor? A misdemeanor, a–hole. It’s a $10…”
Before he can finish, the sharp crack of the Taser interrupts him.
Seconds later, the phone drops to the ground. Flames erupt. Coyl’s screams can be heard as the situation spirals into chaos beside the gas pump.
“All I asked you was why I’m being arrested, and you wouldn’t explain it to me,” Coyl is heard saying after the fire breaks out.
Coyl said he believed in that instant that he might not survive.
“I thought I was gonna die,” he told Fox 10. “Believe it or not, I went into instinct to stop, drop and roll.”
That quick reaction may have saved him from even more devastating injuries. Coyl said he rolled on the ground to smother the flames before paramedics arrived and rushed him to the hospital.
He said he suffered first- and second-degree burns on his hands, along with severe nerve damage.
Even more disturbing, Coyl said no officer ever came to the hospital to question him, write a report, or follow up on the alleged crime that supposedly started the confrontation.
“And I spend five and a half hours there, not a single officer or anything followed up to write a report, question me or nothing,” Coyl said. “Nobody showed up at the hospital at all for any of this.”
The officer’s full identity has not been confirmed, though the name visible on his uniform appeared to read “P. Nielsen.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said t
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