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Police officer with stun gun sets naked man on fire

Posted at 7:56 PM, Jul 18, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-18 20:34:24-04

Police say an officer using a stun gun to restrain a naked man accidentally set the man's chest hair and beard on fire.

Officers found the 32-year-old naked man standing in the street in Manitowoc (MAN'-ih-toh-walk), Wisconsin, on Sunday evening. They say the man yelled that he wanted to harm people living nearby.

Officers suspected he was impaired by drugs and placed him in handcuffs, but the man struggled and refused to enter a squad car.

That's when one officer deployed a stun gun, striking a lighter in the man's hand. The lighter fluid and electricity combined to spark the fire in his beard and chest hair.

As officers extinguished the blaze, the man punched one of them in the face.

Manitowoc is 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of Green Bay.