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According to the disciplinary letter signed by Fire Chief Rudy Jackson, Burls, 32, was suspended in December 2012 after being indicted on a felony burglary charge out of Lancaster. (That charge, according to the letter, was later reduced to criminal trespassing. Burls pleaded no contest and received probation.)

While on suspension, Burls was arrested again, this time by McKinney police on Sept. 27 on allegations of public intoxication and resisting arrest.

In a written statement to Fort Worth fire officials, Burls described the events leading up to his arrest as follows:

He had been drinking at a bar before driving to his girlfriend’s house. While traveling on an expressway service road, he hit a deep hole, damaging his car and forcing him to pull over at agas station.

While waiting for his girlfriend to pick him up, he said, a McKinney police officer arrived. Burls said he was walking toward the officer when he saw one of his car’s tires roll across the road.

“I verbally got the officer’s attention and ran to her and told her that was the tire to my car,” he wrote.

He said that the officer told him to sit in the back of her patrol car and that he was under arrest. He said that when he turned around to ask why, the officer grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back.

“Three or four other officers then joined her and then they slammed me to the ground on my head and [started] punching me in the face and slamming my