Video footage released by the City of Rochester, New York shows a patient being forced to exit an ambulance after police were called. The man later died and now the mayor of Rochester is calling for a probe into the patient’s death.
“You would freak out too if you couldn’t breathe.”
Those were the words captured on video of a man in a medical crisis in New York who died two weeks after police removed him from an ambulance on the side of a city street and then left him slumped on the ground for two minutes unattended, according to a mayor who has now demanded an investigation.
The City of Rochester released the video, provided in this report by Law&Crime, on Thursday, but the incident occurred on Nov. 30. Rochester Mayor Malik Evans said at a press conference Thursday that the man’s family was the first to alert him to what had happened and he was only able to demand the start of an investigation, he told reporters, because police “blue light” or surveillance cameras at the scene in November showed him most of what had occurred.
The man’s name is not being released at this time at the family’s request though they told the mayor he died around Christmas, a few weeks after the incident.
In the video, the man can be heard saying that he is having difficulty breathing on multiple occasions. Police responded to the scene when an EMT aboard the ambulance claimed he tried to lunge at her and had grabbed at her.
The video is not clear on what happened before the man’s removal from the vehicle but as he came out of the ambulance, the footage shows him appearing to explain that he was distressed from being unable to breathe.
“I was freaking out,” he said. “You would freak out too if you couldn’t breathe.”
The responding Rochester police officer replied: “I hear you but I’d probably try to control myself a little better.”
An American Medical Response EMT can briefly be heard in the video before this exchange telling the man that he must leave.
As the officer continued to remove him from the ambulance, the man could be seen struggling to gain his footing, lumbering upward to stand, and then once out of the vehicle, falling to the sidewalk. At least two minutes tick by before someone responds to help him on the ground.
Because it was not deemed a “police incident,” the mayor said it is incumbent on American Medical Response to conduct its own investigation too.
The mayor, who started his remarks by saying he was straining to control his anger and that he was “flabbergasted” at what had occurred, was quick to emphasize that he wanted to know why police were called and why personnel required someone in distress to be removed from an ambulance instead of being taken to the hospital. AMR does not report to the mayor or the city council in Rochester but they do have contracts with the city and Evans underlined that those were contingent on his approval.
“We must make sure those who are caring for our city residents are providing [them] with the same level of care and compassion they would provide to their own mothers,” he said at Thursday’s press conference, emphasizing that “all of the city’s residents should be treated humanely” and given “the same attention as anyone else.”
The mayor said he has begun the process of subpoenaing records from AMR.
A representative for AMR told Law&Crime in an email Friday: “With respect to the City of Rochester’s January 11th press conference about a November 30, 2023, incident. We reached out to the family and do not have permission to speak about the details of this incident due to patient privacy laws. We viewed the video for the first time Wednesday and have launched an internal investigation. We have also requested an investigation by the New York State Department of Health Bureau of EMS and Trauma Systems.”
Though Evans has conceded he doesn’t know what took place in the moments before police arrived to remove the man, he underlined that the footage did not appear to show him as actively threatening anyone. He was not placed under arrest, Evans said, and if he had been threatening anyone then police would have had him in handcuffs.
New York ABC affiliate WHAM reported that Rochester Police Chief David Smith has also called for an investigation.
A representative for the police department did not immediately return a request for comment.
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