FL - Darrell Brackett, 44, fatally burned in Miami gas station attack, 25 Dec 2012

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/27/3158169/police-still-have-no-clue-why.html#morer

A Miami-Dade man who was set on fire at a gas station Christmas night remains in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital Thursday morning, hospital spokesman Edwin O’Dell told The Miami Herald.

Miami-Dade police did not have any new updates into the investigation of why Darrell Brackett, 44, was set on fire at the U-Gas station at 4700 NW 27th Ave.

Brackett’s mother Bridgett Brackett said that relatives hope to distribute flyers this afternoon at the gas station to help police search for tips. She had not received any updates from the hospital or police early Thursday morning.............Police “are out there canvassing the neighborhood -- going door to door trying to see if anybody saw anything,” Brackett said. .......

Bridgett said that when she saw her son the first night he was admitted to the hospital “he was moving around, moving his head, he was trying to open his eyes. I told him I was there.” On Wednesday he was in “excruciating pain” so the doctors put him in a medically-induced coma so they could change his bandages. ....................


More at link.

How absolutely awful, I don't know whether to pray for him to live or die, burns are so painful.

Oh, I could not imagine being him or being his mother right now. That is horrific!

OMG how awful, for hik, his family, just awful. Darryl, honey you are in my prayers, though you may never know it. May you be blissfully unaware in your medically induced coma. May you feel no pain. May you now only rest as medical professionals be guided by the divine as they address your burns.

May God be with this man.

Of all the barbaric methods of harming another living being, this has to be the absolute worst.

I hope his suffering is eased and soon.

Man set on fire in Miami on Christmas faces a lifelong recovery

Most of the skin on his face is gone and nearly 50 percent of his body is covered in third-degree burns, but doctors say Darrell Brackett, who was set on fire in front of a Brownsville gas station on Christmas night, will likely survive.

“We are trying to think positive, but the next three days will be critical,’’ said his mother, Bridgett Brackett, who on Thursday distributed fliers at the gas station where her son was attacked. She and her family are asking the public’s help in finding those responsible for the crime, which happened at the U-Gas station, 4700 NW 27th Ave., along one of the busiest and most blighted, thoroughfares in the neighborhood.

Her son was confronted about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday by someone who grabbed a gas can he was carrying, doused the liquid on him, then set him on fire. Brackett ran screaming into the street, where a passerby helped him to a grassy area and he dropped to the ground and rolled until the fire was extinguished. ..............

Pastor Charles Dinkins, with Hosanna Community Baptist Church, which is just a few blocks from where Brackett was set on fire, said it may be difficult for police to solve the case. Many in the crime-plagued-neighborhood have developed a no-snitch survival mentality, he said............

“It’s just tragic in terms of how this occurred, and even more tragic is we in the community have become so accustomed to seeing shootings and death, that to some extent, we view it as being normal,’’ Dinkins said.

Detectives ask anyone with information on Brackett’s attack to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/27/3158169/police-still-have-no-clue-why.html#morer#storylink=cpy

From February 2013:

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/02/20/mother-of-man-set-on-fire-at-gas-station-sues-for-negligence/

Brackett suffered severe burns over 75 percent of his body. He died February 15th due to the severity of his injuries.

Bridget Brackett said her son never spoke a word after he was horribly burned. “I would talk to him and he would respond by nodding his head. I used to hold his hand and he would grab down and squeeze my hand,” said Brackett.

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From May 2014:

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2014/05/07/arrest-made-in-fiery-christmas-night-attack/

Miami-Dade police have made an arrest in connection to a Christmas night attack two years ago in which a man was set on fire.

Willie James Summersett, Jr., 30, has been charged with first degree murder in the death of Darrell Brackett...

Investigators obtained surveillance tape of Summersett when he went to Hialeah Hospital to be treated for burns. Cineas was also spotted on the hospital’s tapes along with the two other people suspected in Brackett’s attack.

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