Mississippi politician blasts ambulance service for staging at shooting scene waiting for cops. Says "You have got to take the risk".
Excerpts from story by WLBT-TV:
Jackson (MS) city councilman Kenneth Stokes thinks the city needs to change ambulance companies or go into the ambulance business.
Stokes says the victim, 25- year-old Lee Joseph Martin, had to wait 23 minutes for help because police had not secured the shooting scene. He held a news conference at the apartment complex.
“You have got to take the risk. You can’t let citizens die. Because if you are wounded, you say I’m not safe. Now if you can’t assume the risk then give it to the person who can assume the risk,” said Stokes.
AMR spokesman Jim Pollard said it is national policy that ambulances do not go into shooting scenes until they are sure the scene is secure and that is to protect emergency personnel.
Pollard says he has studied the times and found they got the call at 10:15:04, were on scene at 10:22:24, and had patient contact at 10:22:29 or seven minutes twenty-five seconds after getting the call.
