Three EMTs who responded to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols were fired Monday after an internal investigation, the Memphis Fire Department said Monday.
Robert Long, JaMichaelSandridge and Lt. Michelle Whitaker were found to have violated multiple department policies and protocols in their patient response to Nichols on Jan. 7, the fire department 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,”
it said.
The fire department was sent to the scene of Nichols’ traffic stop at 8:31 p.m. after police called because of a “person pepper sprayed,” the fire department noted. Long, Sandridge and Whitaker were directed to a second location and arrived to find Nichols leaning against a police vehicle at 8:41 p.m., 10 minutes after the initial call.
Long and Sandridge responded to Nichols, while Whitaker and a driver remained in the vehicle, the fire department said.
An ambulance was requested after their initial interaction with Nichols, the department said, and an emergency unit was dispatched at 8:46 p.m.
The department said the unit arrived at the scene at 8:55 p.m., and initiated care and took Nichols to a hospital at 9:08 p.m. — about 27 minutes after Long, Sandridge and Whitaker arrived at the second location.
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