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Must See: Paramedic, Troopers Scuffle in Oklahoma
DAVE STATTER
Courtesy STATter911.com
This incident happened Sunday on Highway 62 near Paden, Oklahoma. A trooper with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol pulled over a Creek Nation ambulance as it was heading to the hospital with a patient. TV station KWTV-TV broke this story.
KWTV-TV's Dave Jordan reports there is also dash cam video that apparently includes the alleged assault by the paramedic. That video has not been released.
STATter911.com has been in contact with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Health System, the operators of the ambulance. Spokesman Thompson Gouge says the matter is under investigation. He could not confirm the current status of the EMS crew, but on Wednesday evening passed along the statements of Critical Care Paramedic Maurice White Jr, who was treating the patient, and EMT-B Paul Franks, who was driving the unit. Click the link above to read their accounts of the incident.
Some details earlier today from our sister station WFMY-TV's website:
A scuffle between first responders in Oklahoma is caught on tape. Highway Patrol troopers and a paramedic nearly come to blows while a patient waits to be taken to the hospital. The encounter was caught on a cell phone came by Kenyada Davis, the son of the patient in the ambulance.
The incident started when the ambulance failed to yield to state troopers en route to a call. Davis say the ambulance driver was trying to avoid hitting a car that slowed down and wasn't aware that troopers were nearby until it was too late
After the troopers finished their official business, they pulled the ambulance over. A struggle ensued as they tried to arrest the driver.
According to Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the paramedics assaulted the trooper just before the fight broke out.
The Okfuskee County District Attorney's office is reviewing footage and could file criminal charges against the paramedic by the end of the week.
Courtesy STATter911.com
This incident happened Sunday on Highway 62 near Paden, Oklahoma. A trooper with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol pulled over a Creek Nation ambulance as it was heading to the hospital with a patient. TV station KWTV-TV broke this story.
KWTV-TV's Dave Jordan reports there is also dash cam video that apparently includes the alleged assault by the paramedic. That video has not been released.
NEW: Read reports written by Critical Care Paramedic Maurice White Jr. and EMT-B Paul Franks
Watch the original story from KWTV-TV including interview with witnesses
STATter911.com has been in contact with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Health System, the operators of the ambulance. Spokesman Thompson Gouge says the matter is under investigation. He could not confirm the current status of the EMS crew, but on Wednesday evening passed along the statements of Critical Care Paramedic Maurice White Jr, who was treating the patient, and EMT-B Paul Franks, who was driving the unit. Click the link above to read their accounts of the incident.
Some details earlier today from our sister station WFMY-TV's website:
A scuffle between first responders in Oklahoma is caught on tape. Highway Patrol troopers and a paramedic nearly come to blows while a patient waits to be taken to the hospital. The encounter was caught on a cell phone came by Kenyada Davis, the son of the patient in the ambulance.
The incident started when the ambulance failed to yield to state troopers en route to a call. Davis say the ambulance driver was trying to avoid hitting a car that slowed down and wasn't aware that troopers were nearby until it was too late
After the troopers finished their official business, they pulled the ambulance over. A struggle ensued as they tried to arrest the driver.
According to Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the paramedics assaulted the trooper just before the fight broke out.
The Okfuskee County District Attorney's office is reviewing footage and could file criminal charges against the paramedic by the end of the week.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by josh tompkins on
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i wanted to add that this video reeks of racism but either way, if its not racist, who the hell can choke out a guy thats trained to save lives, and possibly in the middle of doing just that? those cops were jacked up about responding to something and that medic was probably in the middle on an ongoing by the time the vid was taken. hopefully the patient made it throught his but either way everyone's gettin sued.
perhaps the ambo did not need to be running code 3 or priority depending on life threats
certainly those troopers had no business interfering with patient care
no matter what this vid is ugly
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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WHy are some people promoting the racist line as part of this discussion?
Can a white person not arrest an african-american without being accused of being racist?
Don't disagree that there's some serious issues with this whole mess, including the hand around the throat, etc, but that doesn't automatically make it a racist issue...
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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I could not agree more, Lutan! I wish more people felt that way here in America. Everyone is so quick to "play the race card" here. Not everything is about race! Although without racism, the Al Sharptons and the Jesse Jacksons of the world would have to find something else to do!
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Permalink Reply by Don Vuletic on
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Im glad we dont have this problem. Police and fire work well together
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Same here, except when they park their patrol cars in our way! LOL
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i knew i would get comments on my racist comment, it just seemed as though the driver was only reprimanded and the medic, who had a duty to act and was treating a patient, and not driving was put under arrest and choked. like i said in my first post, we are obviously missing a part of the story, something happened between the medic and the cops before the tape rolled. i imagine once an officer feels he is assaulted, he will take necessary means to subdue the offender no matter who that offender may be.
what can we learn?
drive your emergency vehicle safely and responsibly.
police, fire and ems should work as a team.
maintain a professional demeanor.
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Permalink Reply by Fire Chick on
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the cop should have atleast let them get the pt. to the hospital before doing anything... this should have never happened on the side of the rd with a pt. in the back.. i think the cop should be brought up on charges also.. how would he feel if it was his mother in the back and another cop did this..
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Permalink Reply by Mick Shelley on
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Thank God we don't have this problem, we are all professionals,
and work together as such. Something like this should NEVER
happen.
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Permalink Reply by todd rippy on
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i live in oklahoma and have delt with a few trooper before on wrecks ,but as i recall from all the local newscoverage of these case the ambulance was not running lights and sirens and the trooper only had his over heads on and if u ever seen the newtrooper cars in oklahoma during the day time they are very hard to see and even if he was runing sirenswith thenew cars and truck out there u cant harldly hear them either,i had a trooper pass me the other day runnig code he came up on me so fast i never had time to see or much less hear him ,he was going over 100 mph ,i persnaly try not to deal with any of them if i dont have to i live in a very rural area and it might take 2 or 3 hours to get a trooper to come to a wreck so if it just a non injury and very little danage i jst handle it myself
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Permalink Reply by John Cupps on
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I'm thinking the Trooper's need to relax...Ems had a patient, whatever the problem is it could have or should have been delt with at the hospital!!! Then again...If both were running Code, isn't it a give n take situation? It's Sad...seem's as thou someone was on a power trip and it went very bad...I don't blame the Ems driver for getting pissed!!!
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John, If it were me, I would not have stoped until I got
to the hospital, then deal with it there. A police officer
should never stop a Ambulance while on call.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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I agree that it was totally inappropriate for the cops to pull over the ambulance, unless they did something that would indicate the patients life was in jeopardy. If this was the case, then the driver would have been involved with the patrolman, not the ambulance attendant. That being said, I find it inappropriate to lump all cops into the cops hate people post. Come on now, it's just not fair. This particular trooper had some pretty serious issues going on here that have been mentioned throughout this post. But to make the blanket statement that cops hate ems, firefighters hate cops, etc. is nonsense.
There are good and bad people in every profession. You've got folks who are straight up good guys, and fun to work with as well. Then you have the opposite end of the spectrum where you have someone who displays not only racist implications, but inappropriate bodily contact with a hand around the neck. Is it my imagination or does the trooper have the look of a bantering chicken, walking back and forth, not really knowing how to dig himself out of this one...
When this goes before a jury, if it gets that far... any group of fair minded citizens sitting on a jury will see the buffoonery and bad judgement displayed by the trooper and things will be dismissed. There could even be some civil issues involved as well. Another good example of how one mistake leads to another.
What's really sad about this incident is that the patient, who I believe had cardiac related issues, was upset. This also leaves the department liable for damages should the patient have suffered further or increased injuries or stress associated with the trauma.
The REALLY BAD NEWS for the trooper is that this video was taken and shared publicly on the internet... we all watched it. Pretty damning evidence against the trooper and his agency. Someone is going to be taking a vacation in Hawaii and it's not the trooper... Welcome to the world of technology and scene documentation.
Bottom Line:
1. Every profession has their share of idiots. This includes one particular Oklahoma trooper, but not ALL troopers and not ALL cops. People are people. Don't generalize about people and their professions, we are all different but in many ways we are all the same...
2. Just because it's a white cop dealing with a black guy, doesn't mean that this is a racist thing, even though it sure looks like one of those types of things...
3. Patient care is the number one priority and from what I saw, the attendant got pissed off about the patient being delayed from going the to hospital, this is criminal in my mind and someone's going to get in a lot of trouble for exercising bad judgement.
TCSS, CB
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