Springfield, IL (1/12/2022) – Springfield Police Department (SPD) reported on Wednesday, January 11, 2023, that Sangamon County States Attorney Dan Wright announced First Degree Murder charges against two paramedics.
On December 18, 2022, at approximately 2:02 a.m., three Springfield Police Officers responded to a residence in the 1100 block of North 11th Street for a subject who reported several people inside with firearms. When the officers arrived, they met with a resident who indicated the caller was suffering from hallucinations due to alcohol withdrawal. The officers located the subject in a rear bedroom and quickly realized that the patient was in need of medical assistance. They requested an ambulance through dispatch, and while the officers waited for the medical personnel, they attempted to gain information from the patient.
At approximately 2:18 a.m., the ambulance personnel arrived and were escorted into the residence. A female paramedic contacted the patient and instructed him to walk to the ambulance. Based on the officers’ body-worn camera footage, it is clear that the patient could not walk, and the medical personnel were not offering assistance. The three officers took turns helping the patient through the residence and onto the stretcher outside. The body-worn camera footage shows the medical personnel placing the patient on the stretcher in a prone position and securing him to the stretcher before transport.
The Springfield Police Department was later notified the patient had passed after arriving at the hospital. Chief Ken Scarlette requested an independent investigation be conducted by the Illinois State Police (ISP). The Springfield Police Department has cooperated fully with the ISP investigation, providing reports, body-worn camera footage, and other requested information.
The Springfield Police Officers who responded to this incident recognized the patient’s need and requested medical assistance. When those personnel acted indifferently to the patient’s condition, the officers took steps to assist the patient, to get him the care he needed, even waiting on the scene to ensure the medical personnel loaded the patient into the ambulance. The officers, who are not emergency medical professionals, are neither trained nor equipped to provide the necessary medical treatment or transport patients in this situation. The officers turned over the patient’s care to the licensed medical professionals at the scene per Springfield Police Department policy.
The men and women of the Springfield Police Department join the Springfield community in grieving the unnecessary loss of life and pledge to work with the medical care providers in our area to ensure the citizens of Springfield receive the utmost care and consideration in their time of need.
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A law enforcement-related agency has provided this information as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
