Sometimes, you see a police video where you can pretty much predict how everything is going to unfold. An eviction involving a homemade flamethrower, an apparent explosive device, and a barricaded 61-year-old man is definitely not one of those videos.
According to the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office, deputies recently went to an apartment on South Harvey Avenue to serve an eviction on 61-year-old Darron Dunn. Deputies said Dunn had barricaded the door, meaning officers first had to make their way inside.
Things escalated dramatically once they did, as the Sheriff’s Office said Dunn pointed a homemade flamethrower toward one of the deputies. Authorities said the device sent flames roughly 15 feet in the deputy’s direction, which understandably prompted everyone near the doorway to get out of there.
Deputies also discovered what appeared to be an improvised explosive device connected to a car battery, prompting the Tactical Team and Bomb Squad to respond. Dunn was eventually taken into custody and charged with Assault and Battery with a Deadly Weapon, Possession of an Incendiary Device or Explosives, and Obstructing an Officer.
That’s One Brave Guy
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In the clip, officers break down a door and reveal what looks to be some kind of hoarder situation in an apartment. As the officers make their way through the apartment, they see a man seated in one of the rooms with something pointed at them.
Suddenly, you can see just how insane the situation got when the suspect shot a flamethrower at them. The officers were kind enough to give the suspect a moment to put the weapon down, which I think surprised him more than anything.
As the cops are shouting at him, you can’t really see if he does put the weapon down, but he definitely stops shooting fire, and the officers don’t meet his exchange with bullets.
Commenters Couldn’t Get Over the Homemade Flamethrower
A lot of commenters were understandably stuck on the words “homemade flamethrower,” with several trying to figure out exactly what Dunn had constructed. One person jokingly translated the description to “aerosol can and lighter,” while another simply guessed it was “hairspray and a lighter.”
Others found themselves distracted by practically everything else happening in the footage, including Dunn’s appearance during the confrontation. One commenter couldn’t get over him apparently sitting there “in his underwear and shin-high socks with his flamethrower,” which is admittedly a sentence you don’t expect to encounter very often.
There was also plenty of discussion about the deputies’ reactions, particularly the officers shouting for everyone to back away once the flames appeared. Whatever commenters thought of the homemade device itself, a reported 15-foot burst of fire during what started as an eviction certainly explains why this became a job for the Tactical Team and Bomb Squad.