James Bradford Nelson III remembers little about the afternoon last month when he struggled on the hot pavement, its surface searing his bare skin. But records tell the story of how he wound up in the UC Davis Medical Center burn unit, near death with severe wounds on the upper half of his body.
TThe temperature of the asphalt parking lot would have been close to 170 degrees,
On Monday, Nelson, heavily sedated by pain medication and still in intensive care with burns on his torso, face and buttocks, told The Bee he was unable to recall his interactions with police that day. His mother, Tarsha Benigno, described it as torture.
“He had a schizophrenic episode, and now he’s fighting for his life,” she said, sitting in a hospital waiting room with her husband. “Even a dog doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.”