KENT, Ohio - November 2, 2009 - Michael Barrett Jr. and his friends were winding down from a typically busy Halloween night in Kent. The home he and his sister rent is not far from the campus of Kent State University, where the holiday typically draws a crowd from surrounding communities.

He says it was about 4:30 a.m. when he was walking through the house and noticed flames coming from the first floor bedroom where his sister normally sleeps.

"I thought she might be in there so I ran through the room, and when I ran through I got burned, and I couldn't even breathe so I came out this (back) door," explains Barrett.

While his sister was not inside, five friends were in the basement and one other friend was asleep on the second floor.

Barrett ran back into the burning house to warn the people who were in the basement. "We were just all down there talking and then Mike came downstairs and said there's a fire. We got our shoes and stuff on and came up the stairs by the kitchen, and as soon as we got to the (top of the staircase)... the kitchen was already in flames," Brandon Stewart told Fox 8 News.

"We thought he was joking at first," said Matt Moschella who was also in the basement, "but when they went upstairs to check it out like the whole kitchen was ablaze and we were barely able to get out the back door."

Those who were in the basement say had Barrett not run downstairs to alert them when he did - the flames would soon have engulfed their only way out.

Next, Barrett's attention turned to the friend who he let sleep in his bedroom on the second floor. By now however, the flames had become more intense and the smoke much heavier.

Barrett ran back into the home again and up to the second floor bedroom where he took the shirt he had been holding over his face, and offered it to his friend.

"I gave her my shirt to put over her face and when we were coming down the stairs, I heard popping. It was full of black smoke, windows was breaking from the heat," Barrett explains.

Barrett suffered second-degree burns on both of his ears, burns on his face, his left arm and on his torso. He says he thought about the flames and smoke at the time but it was more important for him to get everyone out alive.

By now one of the people rescued from the basement had called 9-1-1.

But because of the normally wild Halloween night in Kent, police were already out in force. Before firefighters arrived, Matt Moschella ran out to flag down a passing police officer.

Barrett by now had everyone safely out of the house. He tells Fox 8 News he ran over to see the police officers but was "in shock" at the time. He says police started cursing him and as he turned to walk away he was thrown to the ground.

"After I got everybody out, I ran down to the driveway. There (were) two policemen sitting there and I asked them can you guys help me my house is on fire," Barrett said.

Barrett tells Fox 8 News that he "stuttered" a few times while talking to police. "And then the police was like (expletive) what do you think we are going to (expletive) do? And then I just walked away like what are you guys here for or something. And the next thing I knew, somebody jumped on my back and slammed me to the ground. And I tried to get up and about. It went for about five seconds before I got tasered."

Brandon Stewart says he saw what was happening and tried to intervene. "When I came outside I saw three cops over there and they had already manhandled him to the ground. I (saw) them taser him and they just kept telling him like, 'don't move or you are going to get tased again.' And then I came over to talk to the cops and they just like started cussing and telling me to go back on the street...on the curb."

Barrett showed Fox 8 news the two marks in the small of his back where he says the taser probes were lodged.

Kent Police charged Barrett with misconduct at an emergency and resisting arrest. Despite his burns, he was taken to the city jail where he spent the night until his first court appearance on Sunday.

Police will not discuss details of the arrest because it is "still in litigation", but Lt. James Cole tells Fox 8 News, "his actions at the scene were not helping the fire department or police in a dangerous situation and was putting himself in danger, and as you can imagine in the early morning hours after Halloween - he was not thinking clearly."

Kent Fire Chief James Williams Senior - who was at the scene while firefighters were still battling the blaze - says he witnessed the fire, which he says got very intense because of the type of construction of the house.

"He put his life at risk making sure everybody got out," Chief Williams said. "It was a fast moving fire, which was more critical for him to make sure everybody was out."

Chief Williams says he never saw Barrett at the scene and did not witness the incident between Barrett and police. But he did say he would agree that the efforts to save his friends that night were heroic.

"Anytime that somebody puts (his) life at risk to save others, obviously that's a pretty heroic act."

Call and let the Police Chief know how you feel about this heroic Citizen being tasered by their Gestapo officers.

Kent Police Chief James Peach
330-673-7732