WYANDOTTE, Mich. (WXYZ) — "He's on fire. He's on fire," yelled one of the Wyandotte police officers who raced to save a man trapped inside a burning vehicle.
The heart-racing rescue is seen on video from multiple body cameras worn by multiple officers trying to save the driver, 28-year-old Karar Nasser Al-Bedairi.
"Pull him out," another officer said after they were able to break the glass and get to Al-Bedairi.
Al-Bedairi can be heard yelling "Help me, help me" to the officers he was just trying to get away from by driving well over 100 mph from Wyandotte to Detroit, where he crashed into a pole.
"Make no mistake, this guy is not a victim. He's a criminal," Wyandotte Deputy Police Chief Archie Hamilton said.
Hamilton said Al-Bedairi was wanted on 15 outstanding warrants in connection with multiple charges including assault, domestic violence, burglary and strangulation.
It all began just after midnight Thursday when police say they spotted Al-Bedairi going about 80 mph on Fort Street near Oak.
"It wasn't the police that made him drive this way. He was driving this way prior to this. Now, when the officers went to conduct a traffic stop, of course, he accelerated even faster and he ran at speeds exceeding 116 miles an hour," Hamilton told 7 Action News.
Even after pulling Al-Bedairi out, officers further risked their lives to make sure no one else was inside the burning vehicle.
Then came the explosion that sent what sounded like flying metal into the air.
After pulling him from the vehicle and away to safety, it appears Al-Bedairi lost consciousness. Officers can be heard saying, "Stay with me, bro."
"It was those same police officers, who he put at risk, that saved his life," Hamilton said. "You can hear these officers, the intensity and the emotion in their voice as they're screaming, 'Get a fire extinguisher. Get a fire extinguisher.' Because they were scared to death that they were going to witness somebody burned alive."
Hamilton said Al-Bedairi's attempt to elude police in his vehicle is another example of why Michigan and other states need to enact stiff penalties including prison time to those who use vehicles to try to elude police.
"There's only one solution: make the penalty so harsh that these people will stop running in cars. They will stop endangering innocent citizens and they will stop endangering our police officers," Hamilton said.
Then there are the policies that often restrict police from pursuing speeding drivers.
"This is the byproduct of those policies. We're seeing more people run. It's almost a nightly thing with the departments in this area. And it needs to stop," Hamilton said. "It is extremely common now for somebody just to hit the gas instead of the brake when they see the red and blue lights in their mirror."
Michigan State Police report that during a six-month period — July 2022 to December 2022 — they had 198 drivers flee from traffic stops where troopers did not pursue. That is only drivers in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.
Al-Bedairi has been charged with fleeing and eluding and driving while license suspended. He's being held on a $200,000 cash bond.
He remains in jail and is due back in court Thursday morning.
