Police Spray Youth, Who Then Catches Fire
<i> United Press International</i>
NEW YORK —
An emotionally disturbed youth burst into flames when police sprayed him with a chemical used to subdue dangerous people, and the Police Department Friday suspended use of the chemical.
The spray, known as Capstun, was determined to be flammable by tests after the Thursday incident in which a Brooklyn youth suffered first- and second-degree burns, said Suzanne Trazoff, the department’s deputy commissioner of public information. Officers had doused him with the chemical, then fired a stun-gun at him.
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