San Diego Police Department body camera video shows a man spraying a flaming aerosol device at officers and a police dog before an officer opened fire inside an adult store on Sept. 16. The man was struck by gunfire, pulled from a fireball after a round hit an aerosol can, and later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police1 reported that the department released the footage of the officer-involved shooting, the burn injuries to K-9 Ryder and three officers, and the medical aid that followed. The sequence began with 911 calls and ended with a fireball inside a business that officers had already cleared of other people.

For readers who track force incidents and public safety, the stakes are plain. A vandalism call turned into a foot chase, an improvised flamethrower, a K-9 deployment, and lethal force in a commercial space. Police had to stop an active fire threat while protecting bystanders, their dog, and one another.

From smashed car windows to a foot chase

The incident started when 911 callers reported a man vandalizing vehicles in San Diego. Callers said he used a metal object to break windows. Officers found him and confronted him. He fled on foot.

As he ran, the San Diego Police Department said, he ignited an incendiary device. The device was an aerosol can loaded with a flammable substance and lit with a torch lighter. He kept the flame going as the chase continued.

He then ran into an adult store. The New York Post placed the business in North Park and described a standoff that grew out of the same vehicle break-in reports and foot pursuit. Officers moved to clear other occupants from the store and radioed their location.

From the back of the business, the man yelled incoherently. Officers told him to get on the ground. Those instructions lasted about five minutes. They also warned that a K-9 would be released if he refused to comply.

Beanbags, K-9 Ryder, and a wall of flame

He did not get down. Instead, he picked up the device and sprayed it inside the business. Officers answered with beanbag rounds, a less-lethal option meant to gain compliance without gunfire.

When that failed, they released K-9 Ryder into the store. The suspect turned the flame on the dog. Ryder took fire to the face and upper body. Officers then advanced into the business as the threat continued.

The department described the attack on the dog in blunt terms.

"He used that flame on a police canine named Ryder. Additionally three officers received burns by unknown means."

As the man pointed the device and sprayed toward officers, one officer fired. The rounds struck the man. Another round hit the aerosol can. The can erupted into a fireball.

Officers pulled the burning man out of the fire and gave medical aid. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. A witness account carried by the Post captured the scene after the blast: "The body was on fire. His whole stomach was on fire. It was awful."

Who was hurt and what came next

Three officers suffered burns. They received medical treatment and were released the same day. K-9 Ryder was taken to a veterinary hospital for burns to the face and upper body. He has since returned to duty. The Post reported he is expected to fully recover.

The man's identity has not been released in the materials describing the video. Officer names and badge numbers were not published either. No public clock times for the 911 calls, the shooting, or the death pronouncement have been detailed in those accounts.

Lethal force cases often draw intense review, much like other recent fatal confrontations involving armed subjects and rapid police response, including an armed man fatally shot at a Nashville federal courthouse after a dangerous public encounter. Video releases put the decision points in front of the public, not behind a closed summary.

Authorities have not publicly confirmed whether any weapon beyond the aerosol and torch setup was recovered. Motive was not stated. Exact wording of every command on the video was not transcribed in the written summaries of the footage.

Force options before the final shots

The body camera record, as described, shows a stepped response rather than an instant resort to gunfire. Officers chased on foot, cleared civilians from the store, gave repeated ground commands for roughly five minutes, warned about the K-9, and used beanbag rounds first.

Only after the man burned Ryder and kept spraying flame toward officers did an officer discharge a firearm. Even then, the fireball came when a round hit the pressurized can, not only from the man's spray alone.

That mix of less-lethal tools, a police dog, and finally deadly force is the kind of sequence reviewers examine shot by shot. Similar scrutiny follows other fast-moving shootings tied to public spaces and storefronts, including cases where two people were found shot dead outside a Millville convenience store and police hunted a suspect.

Here, the immediate hazard was fire in an enclosed business. Flame does not pause for negotiation. Once the device was lit and aimed at people and a dog, officers had seconds, not hours.

Investigation posture and open questions

The Post reported the incident is under investigation by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office. Separate use-of-force or criminal findings were not detailed in the body camera release coverage. No charging document against the deceased man appears in those accounts, and none would be typical after a fatal shooting ends the threat on scene.

Investigators will need to determine the full path of each round, how the can became part of the fireball, and how the three officers and Ryder were burned. They will also map the timeline from the first 911 call to the hospital pronouncement.

Public releases still leave gaps. The adult store’s name and street address were not listed in the primary article of the footage. The calendar year tied to Sept. 16 was not stated there either. Those details may surface later in sheriff’s findings or department briefings.

Violent escalations that begin as street crime and end in gunfire remain a hard test for agencies nationwide, including episodes such as a teen killed after a fight turned into gunfire at Las Vegas First Friday. Clear video shortens the rumor cycle. It does not erase the need for a complete investigative file.

What the footage puts on the record

SDPD’s release shows more than a single pull of the trigger. It shows a suspect who broke car windows, ran, lit a homemade flame device, entered a business, ignored ground commands, burned a police dog, and kept spraying fire toward officers until shots stopped him.

It also shows officers dragging a burning man out of the blast zone and starting aid under conditions most civilians never face. That fact sits beside the death at the hospital and the same-day release of the burned officers.

Other fatal scenes this year have forced the same public demand for straight facts over spin, from a Gaston County home shooting that left two dead and two critically wounded to community interventions after mass-casualty attacks. Body camera video is one of the few tools that lets outsiders see the same frames commanders see.

Ryder’s return to duty after veterinary care is a rare bright line in an otherwise grim file. The dog was used as trained, was burned for it, and went back to work. The three officers who were burned went home the same day after treatment.

No public results have been released about final sheriff’s conclusions. Until that work is done, the verified record is the call for service, the chase, the flame device, the K-9 burn, the gunfire, the fireball, and the death after aid.

When a suspect turns fire on a police dog and the officers behind him, the law-and-order question is not abstract. It is whether trained cops can end a lethal threat in a packed commercial block without hesitation, and whether the public still backs them when the video is ugly and real.