The cops who called for medical assistance after brutally beating Tyre Nichols “withheld” information from responding EMTs, the top of the union representing many of the Memphis fire department said.
In a letter to city councilmembers, President of the Memphis Fire Fighters Association Thomas Malone said the three fired EMTs weren’t given the knowledge they needed to adequately reply to the decision for medical help.
The workers were fired for failing to “conduct an adequate patient assessment” of Nichols on Jan. 7 after five Memphis law enforcement officials severely beat him for 3 minutes during a traffic stop. The 29-year-old father and FedEx driver died three days later and the five cops have been charged together with his murder.
Malone wrote that “there is no such thing as a way any member could possibly be truly prepared for a situation that occurred on January 7, 2023″ within the letter to the lawmakers.
“Our members weren’t given adequate information upon dispatch or upon arrival of the scene,” Malone wrote. “Quite frankly, there was information withheld by those already on the scene which caused our members to handle things otherwise than they need to have.”
Medics Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge and Lt. Michelle Whitaker were all fired following a department investigation into their response after Nichol’s death. Long and Sandridge also had their skilled licenses suspended by a state medical board, which watched 19 minutes of surveillance footage reportedly showing the EMTs’ lack of intervention.
Certainly one of the board members said it was “obvious to even a lay person” that Nichols “was in terrible distress and needed help.”
“They failed to offer that help,” the board member Sullivan Smith said. “They were his best shot, they usually did not help.”
Memphis Fire Chief Gina Sweat has said the department got a call from police for a person who had been pepper-sprayed.
But when the medical responders arrived at 8:41 p.m., Nichols was slumped against a squad automobile in handcuffs, she said in a press release.
Long and Sandridge “did not conduct an adequate patient assessment of Mr. Nichols,” based on the knowledge that they had received from police, while Whitaker remained within the department vehicle, the statement said.
They called an ambulance, which arrived at 8:55 p.m. and left with Nichols inside at 9:08 p.m. — 27 minutes after the three employees arrived on the scene, officials said.
“They were reacting to what they saw, what they were told on the scene,” Sweat recently told city council members. “Obviously, they didn’t perform at the extent that we expect, or that the residents of Memphis deserve.”
All three ex-fire department employees have appealed their terminations.
In total, 13 law enforcement officials have faced punitive actions or are under investigation for the involvement in Nichols’ beating death. Six were fired — including the five accused of the particular fatal beating who are actually facing murder charges. Two Shelby County sheriff’s deputies were also suspended.
With Post wires
