Time gap in medical aid stirs concern
ATLANTA — Philando Castile. Eric Garner. And now Terence Crutcher. Each was a black man killed in a confrontation with an officer, with the aftermath captured on video. And each time, the video leaves the impression of a wounded man left to die alone, with no sense of urgency to try to save him.
Law enforcement experts say it’s not a sign of callousness, but of trying to ensure the officers and others are safe before approaching someone who could be armed or remain a threat even after they’ve been shot.
Civil rights activists call it the ultimate indignity and one more example of indifference and quick-to-shoot attitudes of police toward minorities.
“When the police take actions that result in injury to you and then leave you on the ground to die, well, I think that’s a constitutional violation,” said Randolph McLaughlin, a civil rights attorney and professor at Pace Law School in New York City.
Crutcher, 40, was killed after his vehicle stalled in the middle of a street in Tulsa, Okla.
A helicopter-mounted police camera recorded Crutcher walking toward his sport utility vehicle with his hands up. The lawyer representing the officer who shot Crutcher says she fired when one of his hands reached through the SUV’s window. Attorneys for Crutcher’s family dispute that, presenting at a press conference an enlarged photo from police footage that appeared to show that Crutcher’s window was rolled up.
As he lies on the ground, the officers stand nearby but no one provides aid until about a minute or two later.
That gap has stirred questions about why he was left in the street, motionless, unarmed and seemingly no threat.
Law enforcement experts say that in those situations, police are furiously trying to figure out whether there are other weapons nearby, whether other people might be in the vehicle and how much of a threat the person is. Is it safe for police or EMTs to approach? All of that must be determined, no matter how badly injured the wounded person might appear.
Unlike the movies, which often show people falling instantly to the ground, many who are shot can still function and pose a threat.
Beyond the police shootings in recent years, what disturbs civil rights activists are how people shot by officers are treated afterward.
Garner, a 43-year-old man who was accused of selling cigarettes on the street in Staten Island, died after an officer put him in a choke hold. Video of the incident shows no medical assistance was provided for at least six minutes. Castile was shot during a vehicle stop in an incident recorded by his girlfriend, who was sitting next to him. The video shows him sitting in the car, his shirt bloodied, with an officer pointing a gun at him but no one coming to his aid.
McLaughlin, the attorney, said it’s especially jarring in recent days to see Ahmad Khan Rahami, the suspect in the bombings in New York and New Jersey, being given aid and put in an ambulance after a gun battle with police. He calls it a double standard that exposes inequality.
“If that works for an alleged terrorist — why doesn’t that same principle apply when police stop any individual in the street?” he asked.