EMS Wouldn’t Leave Cleveland City Lines To Pick Up Gun Shot Victim

A Cleveland police body cam video released Friday detailed a situation where officers could not get an ambulance to leave city lines and crossover into a neighboring jurisdiction to pick up a gunshot victim on Jan. 14. City officials are now investigating the situation.

“The incident is under review and we will not be commenting further,” said City of Cleveland spokesperson Dan Williams to International Business Times.

The video showed the man struggling in the snow and begging to be taken to the hospital. The victim was found in Euclid, a suburb of Cleveland. Euclid’s ambulance from emergency medical service (EMS), was in South Euclid, another neighboring city, where it was assisting on the scene of a fire.

“Our EMS won’t come, their EMS is coming from South Euclid,” said the officer wearing the body cam in the video.

As more officers arrived at the scene, they asked why Cleveland EMS vehicles wouldn’t come.

“[Cleveland EMS] won’t come because it’s in your city, even though it’s our victim they won’t come,” the officer with the body cam said.

Police officers ended up taking the victim, who had been shot 16 times, to Euclid Hospital themselves. The video showed police officers grabbing stretchers to help the victim.

“Cleveland EMS refused to respond to the victim due to the victim being out of the City of Cleveland,” read the police report.

The shooting happened near the border of the two cities. The victim drove approximately one mile from Cleveland into Euclid, according to the addresses stated in the police report.

Cleveland EMS policy shows that ambulances will be dispatched to a neighboring jurisdiction if an ambulance is available and the destination is less than 15 minutes away.

The victim, Ronald Newberry, survived the Jan. 14 shooting. He said that he was ambushed while getting into his car in Cleveland. Newberry drove the car after the shooting and ended up in Euclid, where police responded. His girlfriend, Ariel Egler, reported the incident and said that Newberry was shot at with an assault rifle.

Police have made no arrests in the shooting.