A Brief History
On February 4, 1999, New York City police officers shot an unarmed African immigrant 19 times (out of 41 shots fired), a horrible mistake we wrote about previously on our site. (Cops Shoot Amadou Bailo Dialo 19 Times!) Police took a big public relations hit over that incident, but how about the incident in Cleveland in January of 2018?
Digging Deeper
On January 14, 2018, Clevelander Ronald Newberry, age 22, was pulling out of his own driveway when he was subjected to a hail of gunfire. Hit by 16 of the bullets fired at him, he somehow managed to drive about a city block away, just barely crossing the city border into the suburb of Euclid. Police quickly responded to the scene and found the bullet riddled Newberry begging for an ambulance. This point is where things got stupid!
The Cleveland cops were highly concerned about the welfare of the injured, dying man, and called for a Cleveland EMS ambulance to respond. Dispatch from EMS refused to send an ambulance, saying the location was outside the city boundaries (literally by mere feet). Euclid EMS was tied up with another crisis, and the police on the scene were told they would be waiting for a considerable time for an ambulance from another suburb to respond.
Disgusted by the lack of response by EMS, the irate and concerned officers scooped up the severely injured Newberry and placed him in the back of a police cruiser, driving him to the nearest hospital, less than a mile away.
Incredibly, Newberry survived the shooting and the subsequent lack of emergency medical care and has recovered enough to be released from the hospital. Needless to say, Cleveland EMS has been criticized severely for this incident and vows to review the incident and initiate procedures that will avoid any future such disregard for the life of a citizen. We will just have to wait and see what happens!
Thank goodness for decisive and caring Cleveland Police officers that responded and put the welfare of the victim ahead of bureaucratic red tape!
Thank you, officers, for the job you do for the citizens of the US. (Note: We could not find out why Newberry was the subject of an ambush shooting.)
Question for students (and subscribers): If you have any other positive stories of police saving someone feel free to share the story with us in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Sprain, Diana A. What is Your Emergency?: The History of Public Safety Dispatching in America. Self Published, 2015.
