Dallas paramedic shot

DrParasite

DrParasite

The fire extinguisher is not just for show
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(CNN)A gunman opened fire on an emergency medical technician vehicle, critically injuring a paramedic with the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department on Monday, according to a statement from the city's police department.

Officers responding to the scene were pinned down, according to a tweet from the Dallas Police Association, the union representing local officers.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/01/us/dallas-firefighter-shooting/index.html
 
This isn't getting much press... I guess this is just the norm now. Better cover those transgender May Day marches and death sentence protesters though.... :rolleyes:

I hope they catch the ******* and solve his issues with the proper amount of lead poisoning.
 
Its early but the story on a Dallas area news source is the Paramedic was first on scene and began treatment.

Scene safety fail

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From what I've read, it sounds like there may have been some miscommunication as to the nature of the call. EMS responded to what they thought was suicide, rather than an active shooter. This hits close to home... I work less than 6 miles from the shooting location. Our school went under a brief "lock in" situation while administrators were in contact with police while the shooter remained at large.

Police officer went into the shooting scene, and pulled the wounded paramedic out of fire, put him into his squad car, and transported to the trauma center in the police car.
 
hops19 said:
EMS responded to what they thought was suicide, rather than an active shooter.
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That makes some more sense. Miscommunications between dispatch and Law Enforcement happen and could result in us being put in a situation where we should be staged instead.

Yesterday we responded to a "911 Hangup", not a super uncommon type of call, but the Sheriff's Dept squad car racing up behind us lights and sirens and the Deputies, not quite running, but definitely walking with a purpose (rangewalking anyone?) inside while I'm still pulling the gurney out left me a little perplexed and thinking if maybe we should find a staging location? Turned out to be a routine medical with no law enforcement involvement needed (ALOC, Pt with diabetes collapsed on the floor, A&Ox1, except BSG was like 250 so I digress......)

But if my scene had been a GSW and those LASD Deputies were another minute behind (FD was another 3 or so minutes away) it wouldn't have been vastly different than the situation in Dallas (except hoping neither me or my partner getting shot)

We do have an FD company in our district who's idea of staging out for a call is to drive up to the scene and walk in before deciding if they need to back out or not, a few times we've been parked the requisite block away and have had them drive right by us, kind of annoying, obviously so far it hasn't been a problem, but I can easily see it turning into one one of these days..

Also last shift, an early morning call for an assault that came with "Stage for PD" instructions, pull up and they have a roadblock set up a block out, inform us to pull around the block and approach from the other direction, as we do so, the radio says that they're Code 4 and that we are now clear to enter, so I drive up to the Deputies.....who are in a standoff with guns drawn on the suspect who was barricaded inside......yeah.......(turns out the assault patient was a few houses down away from the standoff, but that information never filtered its way from the Deputies on scene through their dispatch to Fire's dispatch to ours, if while we were still pulled up next to the Deputies the suspect decided to open fire.....yeah things could have been bad....)

Scene safety is definitely important, but you can't assume you're always gonna told by dispatch when you need to stage or not, and have to keep your head about you and maintain situational awareness....
 
Just saw a press release on FB from a local EMS/FD in which an OD patient regained consciousness and immediately reached for a hidden gun and fired a shot before being restrained. No one was hurt.

Scene safety and avoiding these situations without PD is important however I think EMS having access to plate carriers and CCW should be in the discussion.
 
Not too long ago we had a car wreck. It was dispatched as a rollover with ejection......In actuality the caller told dispatch the ejected (wasnt actually ejected but was in the bed of the truck) woman was rolled up in a rug with a bullet in her head.

This area of the county rarely has an officer even close so the ambulance was first on scene with a conservation officer luckily. They arrived just in time for the driver (who the caller reported fled the scene with a gun) shot another person during a car jacking.

Big dispatch fail. I bought a level III vest rated for 308 at 50 feet the next day.

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Pat down before you wake them.
 
Have the cops transport psychs. We stopped doing crisis call outs about 5 years ago. Only if they cant get in the back of the squad car do we come out, so the danger is much reduced, as we are usually dealing with nursing home patients.

More and more i think i should start wearing my vest every day, instead of just for dispatched crime calls
 
Bullets said:
Have the cops transport psychs. We stopped doing crisis call outs about 5 years ago. Only if they cant get in the back of the squad car do we come out, so the danger is much reduced, as we are usually dealing with nursing home patients.

More and more i think i should start wearing my vest every day, instead of just for dispatched crime calls
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Core issue: what if the psych isn't a psych? What if it is AMS due to something else? Unless the cops are doing glucometry, stroke screens, etc., it isn't fair to the cops (or safe for the patient) to be putting the patient in the back of a squad car.


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I've been in some pretty sketchy places and haven't really felt the need for one yet, but then again I wouldn't know I need it until I need it I reckon. There was a brand new dude that was killed out here a few years ago and he was in a nicer part of the county, so I guess the locale isn't always a good judge of necessity. I've had more vehicle close calls than violent encounters, but I am sure that will change in time along with my perspective.
 
EpiEMS said:
Core issue: what if the psych isn't a psych? What if it is AMS due to something else? Unless the cops are doing glucometry, stroke screens, etc., it isn't fair to the cops (or safe for the patient) to be putting the patient in the back of a squad car.


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Dunno, hasnt been an issue yet....but i guess i dont know how "i want to kill myself" would get crossed. If the cop thought it was a medical they could request us.
 
Bullets said:
Dunno, hasnt been an issue yet....but i guess i dont know how "i want to kill myself" would get crossed. If the cop thought it was a medical they could request us.
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Yeah, absolutely true. But, as others have said on threads about tiered systems, "you don't know what you don't know," and I doubt a cop (even one who is an EMT) wants to be in the position of deciding whether somebody's AMS is psychiatric or "medical" (broadly construed) in origin.
 
EpiEMS said:
Yeah, absolutely true. But, as others have said on threads about tiered systems, "you don't know what you don't know," and I doubt a cop (even one who is an EMT) wants to be in the position of deciding whether somebody's AMS is psychiatric or "medical" (broadly construed) in origin.
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We usually get our psychs from a psych screener, or the patient them self calls 911 and says they are having a break and want to go to the ER. I cant think of a time in the 8 years ive worked for this agency where we went out for something that was a psych and ended up being a medical
 
As far as PD (and Fire who has ALS scene control here) are concerned, psychs are straight up ambulance transport. Unless they're already in the back of a squad car and are violent enough everyone agrees it's not worth the trouble to pull them out of the police car and strap them to the gurney, but I've only ever had that happen once or twice, 99% of the time, they wall out of the squad car and onto the gurney and go to the hospital, and I have zero authority to say otherwise.
 
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