The 40-year-old man accused of setting two Vancouver police officers on fire in an effort to escape arrest has been charged.
The Vancouver Police Department confirmed to CTV News Friday night that Jordan Paul Campbell Mutual had been charged in the case.
Mutual has been charged with one count of assaulting a police officer and one count of obstructing a police officer, the VPD said in a brief update on the case Saturday morning.
The incident occurred Thursday night. While on patrol in the Downtown Eastside, police attempted to arrest a man for jaywalking. As they were taking him into custody, the suspect “used a flammable substance to set the officers’ uniforms on fire, then continued to flee,” the VPD said Friday.
Surveillance video of the incident shared with CTV News shows two police officers pursuing a person whose clothes are on fire. Later, the officers can be seen walking in the opposite direction with the suspect in handcuffs.
One of the officers was treated by paramedics at the scene and is recovering at home, while the other was uninjured, according to the VPD. The suspect was taken to hospital for burns.
Mutual remains in custody, police said Saturday.
Online court records show he is scheduled to appear in court for a bail hearing this Thursday, April 17.
In their statements Friday, police said the suspect in the case was wanted on 10 outstanding warrants.
Other online court records involving an accused named Jordan Paul Campbell Mutual, born in 1984, appear to shed some light on the nature of those outstanding warrants.
While some of the files are marked “limited access,” others show charges including assault, assault by choking, uttering threats, possessing a firearm without a licence or registration, careless use or storage of a firearm and breaches of undertakings and release orders.
The assault, choking and threats charges are part of a “K” file, which is a designation used by the courts to mark cases of intimate partner violence.
Those offences are alleged to have occurred on Sept. 13, 2022 in the city of Vancouver.
All of the publicly available files involving Mutual show a next court appearance scheduled for April 17.
