EMTs provided no care for 19 minutes after police beating
The two emergency medical technicians who first arrived to treat Tyre Nichols after he was severely beaten by Memphis, Tennessee, police officers did not provide any care for 19 minutes after getting to the scene, a regulatory agency concluded Friday as it voted to suspend their licenses.
Members of the Tennessee Emergency Medical Services Board voted unanimously to suspend the licenses of the EMTs, Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge, who could be seen on video largely standing around as Nichols, 29, writhed in pain on the ground.
On Friday evening, the Memphis Police Department also announced that it had fired a sixth officer, in addition to the five who had already been fired and charged with second-degree murder in Nichols' death. The sixth officer, Preston Hemphill, had fired his Taser at Nichols as he ran away from police. After other officers caught up to Nichols, he was captured on his body camera video saying, “I hope they stomp his ass.”
Hemphill's lawyer, Lee Gerald, said that he and his client disagreed with the basis of his firing but would continue to cooperate with the investigation into Nichols' death.
In the case of the EMTs, the emergency medical services board found that for 19 minutes, neither had taken Nichols' vital signs, conducted an examination of him or administered oxygen. Sandridge, who, as an advanced EMT, was also authorized to administer an IV line and perform cardiac monitoring, did not do so, the board found. Nichols died three days after the Jan. 7 beating.
“They were his best shot, and they failed to help,” said Dr. Sullivan Smith, a physician who is the chair of the board. He added that it was obvious that Nichols was in distress.
The chief of the Memphis Fire Department, which oversees the city's emergency medical response, fired the two EMTs, Long and Sandridge, earlier this week, as well as a lieutenant, Michelle Whitaker, who the chief said never got out of the fire truck at the scene. The union that represents Fire Department employees did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
Matthew Gibbs, a lawyer for the state's Health Department, had asked the emergency medical services board to hold a special meeting to suspend the EMTs, ensuring they cannot work as EMTs in the state. The suspension issued Friday was temporary, and the board will hold a hearing over whether to issue a full suspension at a later time.
Dennis Rowe, an ambulance service operator on the board, said there was “every reason to believe” that the EMTs' inaction “may have contributed to the demise of that patient.”