Black doctor who treated cops mourns
FRESH TRAGEDY FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
ment, and we need to support the families that have lost someone,” Snyder said at a news conference.
“(It’s a) terrible day in a wonderful community,” he said.
The death of Zangaro and Kienzle came just four days after a deadly attack on police officers in Dallas.
Five officers were killed Thursday by lone gunman Micah Johnson, 25, an ex-soldier with anti-police and antiwhite beliefs. The officers were patrolling a peaceful protest on behalf of the two black men brutally shot by police in Louisiana and Minnesota earlier in the week. A BLACK DOCTOR who treated dying Dallas police officers nearly broke down in tears Monday as he pleaded for an end to racial violence.
“This killing, it has to stop,” Dr. Brian Williams, a trauma surgeon at Parkland Memorial Hospital, declared during an afternoon conference.
“Black men dying and being forgotten. People retaliating against the people that are sworn to defend us. We have to come together and end all of this.”
An emotional Williams said he treated some of the five officers who died after a gunman opened fire at a protest Thursday night against police brutality.
Williams said he was pained by the police killings last week of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile, in Minnesota. But the killings of cops in his city sickened him as well.
“I understand the anger and the frustration and distrust of law enforcement, but they are not the problem,” he said, his voice choking up. “The problem is open discussions about the impact of race relations in this country. And I think about it every day, that I was unable to save those cops when they came here that night. It weighs on my mind constantly.”
Williams also said he and his colleagues “routinely care for multiple gunshot victims. But the preceding days of more black men dying at the hands of police officers affected me . ... I fit that demographic of individuals. But I abhor what has been done to these officers and I grieve with their families.”
The doctor said later he has a young daughter and is already trying to teach her how to interact with law enforcement. When he sees officers in restaurants, Williams said, he’ll often pick up their tabs.
“I want my daughter to see me interacting with police that way so she doesn’t grow up with the same burden that I carry, when it comes to interacting with law enforcement,” Williams said.
“And I want the Dallas police to also see me, a black man, and understand that I support you, I will defend you and I will care for you. That doesn’t mean that I do not fear you. That doesn’t mean if you approach me, I will not immediately have a visceral reaction and start worrying for my personal safety.”
Dallas police chief David Brown said the trauma continued to affect his officers. He was close to ordering mandatory counseling for all of them, he said.
He also encouraged some of the people protesting to consider how they might change the system from within.
“We’re hiring,” he said. “We’ll give you an application. We’ll help you resolve some of the problems you’re protesting about.”