A report accuses former Baton Rouge cop Blane Salamoni, who fatally shot Alton Sterling in 2016, of preventing EMS from saving a shooting victim in 2014 by misleading them about the patient’s status, and harassing them when they did respond.
The report was released by Sterling family attorneys and is a complaint filed by an EMS worker who says Salamoni delayed the team, telling them the victim had died and told them not to respond while the victim was reportedly still writhing on the ground.
Attorney Chris Stewart, who is representing the family in a civil case against the city of Baton Rouge describes the complaint. “She says that it was too late, they tried to do resuscitation, they tried to keep him alive, but it was too late. They had been delayed too long.”
Stewart says after misleading EMS about the patient’s status, Salamoni became hostile to the responding paramedic who arrived to treat the victim of the shooting.
“Officer Salamoni began cursing at her, yelling at her, when she began questioning why they were told not to try and save the patient.”
The complainant described the harassment, saying “The only word that could describe and interpret my feelings (towards the way Salamoni was treating me) was the “N” word.”
The attorney adds it’s just one of several disturbing incidents that should have resulted in Salamoni’s earlier termination. The former officer was eventually fired for his actions in the Sterling incident but reached a settlement with the Department last week where he retroactively resigned and is barred from policing in Baton Rouge.
Salamoni was reportedly not disciplined for his actions in 2014, and Stewart says it’s an indictment against those who still support the former officer. “This is who people are still defending. The Union can’t defend an individual like this, people in the community can’t defend an individual like this. This is who City Council is defending by not settling this case.”
If the family’s civil suit against the city is not settled the case will go to trial in 2020.
