Two emergency medical workers who treated Tyre Nichols and a fire truck driver on the scene after he was brutally beaten by Memphis police officers have been fired for violating their department’s policies.
EMTs Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge, along with Lt. Michelle Whitaker, were fired from the Memphis Fire Department on Monday. Whitaker remained in the fire apparatus while Long and Sandridge responded to the call of a person who had been pepper-sprayed, but they failed to adequately assess Nichols’s injuries, Fire Chief Gina Sweat said in a statement.
“Their actions or inactions on the scene that night do not meet the expectations of the Memphis Fire Department and are not reflective of the outstanding service the men and women of the Memphis Fire Department provide daily in our community,” Sweat said.
The EMTs were “relieved of duty,” and an investigation into their response was launched, fire department spokesperson Qwanesha Ward said on Jan. 23.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/clarissajanlim/tyre-nichols-emt-fire-department