By Joy Lukachick
Chattanooga Times Free Press
An Athens, Tenn., officer who was doused in lighter fluid and almost set on fire said he only had a second to react.
“That’s not something you think about every day ... being set on fire,” patrol officer Lee Reagan said Thursday.
Reagan responded to a call of a disturbance at an apartment complex Tuesday afternoon to find 59-year-old Ronald Fisher standing in the courtyard. Fisher had a baseball bat and lighter fluid in one hand and a large mattress at his feet, Reagan said.
Reagan said he asked Fisher what was wrong, and the man said he just had been told he was going to be evicted from his apartment.
Fisher began spraying lighter fluid on the mattress, Reagan said, and when the officer yelled for Fisher to stop, he began to spray Reagan, too.
From the corner of his eye, Reagan said, he saw Fisher had a small lighter in his other hand and was flicking it, trying to get a flame.
“I was so close to him I just tackled him,” Reagan said.
They were wrestling when another officer pulled up, Reagan said. As the two officers fought to handcuff Fisher, he kept reaching for Reagan’s holstered sidearm, the officer said.
Fisher finally was cuffed, and an ambulance was called to take care of his wounds from the fight, an incident report shows. Fisher had a small cut on his head but no other injuries, the report said.
Fisher has been charged with attempted second-degree murder, but police are asking for a court-ordered mental evaluation, said Athens Detective Sgt. Heith Willis.
A bond hearing has been set for April 1 before McMinn County General Sessions Judge James Watson, a worker in the court clerk’s office said.
Reagan said this wasn’t his first encounter with Fisher, but it was different from past meetings.
“He’s locked himself out of his apartment a few times,” Reagan said. “But he’s never been aggressive.”
Copyright 2011 Chattanooga Publishing Company