{"id":15642,"date":"2012-12-14T14:55:34","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T19:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=15642"},"modified":"2012-12-14T14:55:34","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T19:55:34","slug":"florida-cops-tase-man-for-trying-to-put-out-fire-on-his-own-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/12\/florida-cops-tase-man-for-trying-to-put-out-fire-on-his-own-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida cops tase man for trying to put out fire on his own house"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Daniel<\/a>
Daniel Jensen. (Image from screenshot of video from www. pinellaspark.wtsp.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a Florida man picked up a garden hose to try to extinguish a fire that engulfed his neighbor\u2019s house in flames, he was brutally tasered by police in front of his two children.<\/span><\/p>\n

After laying in a puddle while the electricity surged through his body, 42-year-old Daniel Jensen is now emotionally distraught from the experience. He recounted the incident to a WTSP News reporter with tears in his eyes and a cracking voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was horrible. I was laying in a puddle of water being electrocuted,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he said.\u00a0\u201cAnd here\u2019s the people trying to protect us. And I\u2019m trying to protect my family and neighbors and they\u2019re the ones that are bringing harm to me. I don\u2019t understand it.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Jensen and his wife, residents of Pinellas Park, woke up from a nap at 6 p.m. on Nov. 8 to the sound of an immense fire engulfing their neighbor\u2019s house. Grabbing his fire extinguisher, the husband and father of two ran outside in his underwear and sprayed it at the flames that were engulfing the home. The flames had already reached the fence that separated the two houses and the wind was blowing them towards the corner of Jensen\u2019s home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once the fire extinguisher was empty, the panicked man, concerned about his family inside the house, grabbed a garden hose to continue his attempt at extinguishing the fire. The police were there, but firefighters had not yet arrived at the scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was calling for my daughter. I was getting no response,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he said.\u00a0\u201cSo I came out, grabbed the hose and started to spray her room\u2026 until I heard she was out. [The police] kept telling me just let it go, that\u2019s what insurance is for. That wasn\u2019t acceptable to me.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The police ordered Jensen to stop using the garden hose. When the man continued, they drew a stun gun and tased him, leaving marks on his back where the wires shot electrical currents through his body. Jensen received no verbal warning or threat before he found himself on the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs I went to grab the hose, I heard an officer [say] to him, hit him, take him down, tase him,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he recalled.\u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t know that they were talking to me or about me. I was concerned about putting water on the fire and the next thing I knew, I was being tased.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The teary-eyed man remembers lying in a puddle of water while being stunned.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought [the police] were here to help me. Instead, they hurt me,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The police claim they could have charged Jensen with obstruction for ignoring their commands to stop using the garden hose. But they themselves may soon be facing a lawsuit. Florida law requires that a Taser can only be used if all other methods to stop a person fail. The law also requires police to give the subject a verbal warning before using the weapon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t just taser anyone,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Jensen\u2019s lawyer Heidi Imhof told the Tampa Bay Times.\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s an unarmed person on his private property trying to fight a fire.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a Florida man picked up a garden hose to try to extinguish a fire that engulfed his neighbor\u2019s house in flames, he was brutally..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/daniel-jensen-n.jpg?fit=370%2C277&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}