"Officer, my mom is dying!!!"

[Bob Loblaw]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...p.3e9c080.html

News


The Dallas Police Department confirmed Thursday that an officer drew a gun on NFL running back Ryan Moats and his wife after he stopped them to give them a ticket even as they begged to hurry to the bedside of their dying mother.
As he rushed his family to the hospital, Ryan Moats, 26, rolled through a red light. A Dallas police officer pulled their SUV over outside the emergency room at the Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano.
“He was pointing a gun at me as soon as I got out of the car,” said his wife, Tamishia Moats. “It was the weirdest feeling because I’ve never had a gun pointed at me before under those circumstances.”
Seconds later, Ryan Moats and his wife explained that her mother was dying inside the hospital.
“You really want to go through this right now?” Moats pleaded. “My mother-in-law is dying. Right now!”
A Dallas police spokesman said that Officer Robert Powell told his commanders that he drew his gun, but did not point it. Lt. Andy Harvey said it is not unusual for officers to draw a gun without pointing it. Drawing a gun is not unusual in traffic stops where officers feel threatened.
Officer Powell could not be reached for comment.
Powell, 25, spent long minutes writing Moats a ticket and threatened him with arrest during the incident.
“I can screw you over,” the officer told Moats. “I’d rather not do that.”
The scene last week, captured by a dashboard video camera, prompted apologies and the promise of an investigation from Dallas police officials.
“There were some things that were said that were disturbing, to say the least,” said Harvey.
Moats’ mother-in-law, Jonetta Collinsworth, was struggling at 45 with breast cancer that had spread throughout her body. Family members rushed to her bedside from as far away as California.
On March 17, the Moatses had gone to their Frisco home to get some rest. Around midnight, they received word that they needed to hurry back to the hospital if they wanted to see Collinsworth before she died.
The couple, along with Collinsworth’s father and an aunt, jumped into the SUV and headed back toward the hospital. They exited the Dallas North Tollway, just down the street from the hospital.
Moats turned on his hazard lights. He stopped at a red light, where, he said, the only nearby motorist signaled for him to go ahead. He went through.
Powell, watching traffic from a hidden spot, flipped on his lights and sirens. In less than a minute, he caught up to the SUV and followed for about 20 more seconds as Moats found a parking spot outside the emergency room.
Tamishia, 27, was the first out. Powell drew his gun and yelled at her to get back in.
“Get in there!” he yelled. “Let me see your hands!”
“My mom is dying,” she explained to him.
Powell was undeterred.
“I saw in his eyes that he really did not care,” Tamishia Moats said. “Honestly, I don’t think I cared that he had a gun pointed at me. My train of thought is that I’m going to see my mom in the hospital before she dies.”
Tamishia Moats and her great-aunt ignored the officer and headed into the hospital.
“It was almost like a movie,” she said, “It felt like we had robbed a bank or something.”
Ryan Moats, who stayed behind with the father of the dying woman, said Powell also pointed his gun at him. He said he put his hands on the car because he was afraid that he might get shot.
“I put my hands on the car so he couldn’t say I reached for something,” Ryan said. “He didn’t ask me to put my hands on the car. I just did it to try to protect myself. I was pleading with him.”
He tried to explain the situation to the officer.
“I waited until no traffic was coming,” Moats told Powell, explaining his passage through the red light. “I got seconds before she’s gone, man.”
Powell demanded his license and proof of insurance. Moats produced his license but said he didn’t know where the insurance paperwork was.
“Just give me a ticket or whatever,” he said, beginning to sound exasperated and a little argumentative.
“Shut your mouth,” Powell told him. “You can cooperate and settle down, or I can just take you to jail for running a red light.”
There was more back and forth.
“If you’re going to give me a ticket, give me a ticket.”
“Your attitude says that you need one.”
“All I’m asking you is just to hurry up.”
Powell began a lecture.
“If you want to keep this going, I’ll just put you in handcuffs,” the officer said, “and I’ll take you to jail for running a red light.”
Powell made several more points, including that the SUV was illegally parked. Moats replied “Yes sir” to each.
“Understand what I can do,” Powell concluded. “I can tow your truck. I can charge you with fleeing. I can make your night very difficult.”
“I understand,” Moats responded. “I hope you’ll be a great person and not do that.”
Hospital security guards arrived and told Powell that the Moatses’ relative really was upstairs dying.
Powell spent several minutes inside his squad car, in part to check Moats for outstanding warrants. He found none.
Another hospital staffer came out and spoke with a Plano police officer who had arrived.
“Hey, that’s the nurse,” the Plano officer told Powell. “She said that the mom’s dying right now, and she’s wanting to know if they can get him up there before she dies.”
“All right,” Powell replied. “I’m almost done.”
As Moats signed the ticket, Powell continued his lecture.
“Attitude’s everything,” he said. “All you had to do is stop, tell me what was going on. More than likely, I would have let you go.”
It had been about 13 minutes.
Moats and Collinsworth’s father went into the hospital, where they found Collinsworth had died, with her daughter at her side.
The Moatses, who are black, said Wednesday that they can’t help but think that race might have played a part in how Powell, who is white, treated them.
“I think he should lose his job,” said Ryan Moats, a Dallas native who attended Bishop Lynch High School and now plays for the Houston Texans.
Powell was hired in January 2006. Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson said Powell told police officials that he believed that he was doing his job. He has been re-assigned to dispatch pending an investigation.
“When people are in distress, we should come to the rescue,” said Simpson. “We shouldn’t further their distress.”
Collinsworth was buried Saturday in Louisiana.
Rebecca Lopez of WFAA-TV contributed to this report.
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[Retdetsgt]

At least there's a video so it's not he says, he says.

[Big Al]

I watched the video and it could have been handled quite differently. I have personally had situations like this one and I won't say that he was right or wrong for citining the guy, but I would not have cited him immediately or not at all. In the situation seen/heard on his video it would not have been to dificult to confirm the pleas being heard and then done what was right with all things considered. Right, may have been a ticket????

[Xiphos]

The people I've pulled over who say they have emergencies, I identify them and then follow (at the speed limit) to their emergency (if it's close.) You can write the ticket afterward or decide to use discretion if you want. There's no sense at all lecturing and bullying someone who may be in the middle of an emergency though. Once you've identified them charges can be made any time.

[TXCharlie]

They just showed the video on Channel 21...

I would have at least gone into the hospital with him to see what it's all about, since they were already there. If we stopped them out on the freeway, though, the unwritten procedure is to get Dispatch to confirm it with the hospital while we're writing the ticket - too many people lie about that sort of thing.

The ticket can always be torn up or voided later if it's confirmed, and if the infraction wasn't really reckless.

[Bob Loblaw]

I stopped some lady one night for a myriad of traffic violations. When I got to the window, she told me her license was suspended, but her mother was at Southwest Medical Center and was dying. I got the mom's name and went back to the car. I called Southwest, who told me that they didn't have the mom in as a patient. I charged the woman with driving under suspension, no insurance, three counts of improper equipment, improper left turn, fail to signal while changing lanes...then I find a joint in the car. Well, she has prior weed charges, so everything goes up from city charges ($1200-ish bond) to District charges ($5800 bond) per our policy. I've never been so mad in my life at someone I arrested. The moral I took from that encounter is that when someone claims a dying relative, I'll call the hospital. If they're telling the truth, they go as quick as I can tell them to drive away. If they're lying, I'll have fun destroying your traffic record.

[pgg]

I was talking about this on another forum. I think the part that gets the officer in trouble is when he gets into a verbal pissing match with the driver. When he pulls the gun, I have no problem there. What do any of you do when you have a car that doesn't yield right away, then when it does people jump out before it stops moving? Around here that would elevate it to a high risk stop. After all these years I have only run into one legit medical emercency. All others have been bullcrap.

[mack]

I saw this on the news early this morning. I also felt that it could have been handled differently. Like pgg says it was probably the verbal pissing match that did him in.

[Big Al]

Pgg's post reminded me of two different stops I made several years back. Had a driver flying down the highway, when I lit him up he did stop, gave the me the "were on the way to the hospital" then I see the passenger with a hay hook stuck in his leg. I immediately let them go and notified the hospital so they would be ready for them.

Another guy was driving himself to the hospital after he had cut his finger off (about half of it) he showed me the cut off part that he had on ice in a baggy.... I think he was being truthful,, LOL

[TXCharlie]

The TV news is showng a press conference that Chief Kunkle called, where he said that he was embarassed by the officer's actions and also named the officer, saying that he lacked common sense.

VIDEO:
http://www.the33tv.com/pages/content...586&feedID=460

That sounds like he's looking at some unpaid time off, at the very least.

[Jks9199]

I stopped some lady one night for a myriad of traffic violations. When I got to the window, she told me her license was suspended, but her mother was at Southwest Medical Center and was dying. I got the mom's name and went back to the car. I called Southwest, who told me that they didn't have the mom in as a patient. I charged the woman with driving under suspension, no insurance, three counts of improper equipment, improper left turn, fail to signal while changing lanes...then I find a joint in the car. Well, she has prior weed charges, so everything goes up from city charges ($1200-ish bond) to District charges ($5800 bond) per our policy. I've never been so mad in my life at someone I arrested. The moral I took from that encounter is that when someone claims a dying relative, I'll call the hospital. If they're telling the truth, they go as quick as I can tell them to drive away. If they're lying, I'll have fun destroying your traffic record.

It's a great idea, but today there's a problem with it. Under HIPPAA, a lot of hospitals are not routinely releasing the names of patients unless the patient has given explicit permission to do so. Not even to cops... We've had trouble with them refusing to give us the information that they are supposed and required to, let alone something like the name. You can't even put the person on the phone and have them give permission...

To me, it's a simply judgement and assessment question. Do you feel the person's being honest? If so -- act with appropriate discretion and dispatch. If you feel they're lying -- take appropriate steps.

In this case -- the cop made himself look like an idiot because he was apparently focused on the traffic offense, not listening to what was going on. And when he got some resistance/attitude -- he decided to be an ass in handling it, rather than being professional.

[Xiphos]

Maybe he shouldn't have run his mouth like that but it's far from "embarrassing" and worthy of admin leave. This made the media and the cop was thrown under the bus by his gutless, worthless chief. Whoda thunk?

[Retdetsgt]

Maybe he shouldn't have run his mouth like that but it's far from "embarrassing" and worthy of admin leave. This made the media and the cop was thrown under the bus by his gutless, worthless chief. Whoda thunk?

Sometimes throwing up a brick wall makes it worse.

I guess I'd have to look at from the standpoint of if it was my mother dying in the hospital, how I would I feel about being hassled by a traffic cossack?

Most people have no more than one or two professional contacts with a police officer. It's sad when it turns out like this one did.

[tapout]

Dallas police chief apologizes for conduct of officer who drew gun on NFL player outside hospital | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

News

“I think he should lose his job,” said Ryan Moats, a Dallas native who attended Bishop Lynch High School and now plays for the Houston Texans.

Rebecca Lopez of WFAA-TV contributed to this report.
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said the nfl running back making a million dollars a year....

hey ryan, maybe you should lose your job, youre a terrible running back, you sucked with my EAGLES, and you still suck now.

that being said, the incident probably could have been handled differently, but i dont think termination is warranted.

[Captain America]

I'm sick of hearing about it. I've seen it three times on the national news already today. As I recall four police officers were just killed in the line of duty in Oakland , California. I don't recall seeing that three times on the news............

[Bob Loblaw]

As I recall four police officers were just killed in the line of duty in Oakland , California. I don't recall seeing that three times on the news............

Seriously? The Oakland deal is all over the news. I understand what you're saying about being tired of hearing about this deal in Dallas, but to say it's getting more play than the tragedy in Oakland is wrong.

[MacLean]

The moral I took from that encounter is that when someone claims a dying relative, I'll call the hospital. If they're telling the truth, they go as quick as I can tell them to drive away. If they're lying, I'll have fun destroying your traffic record.

Did you consider that unless HIPAA forms were signed, that the hospital can't tell you if they have a patient or not?

That would be the only issue with calling today, right now.

(I swear I didn't see the previous note on this issue, great minds)

[Captain America]

Not wrong to me Bob, I've seen the Dallas thing about once every half hour since I've posted complete with polls and blogs. The Oakland incident is old news. No sound bites and inflamatory video to show over and over. Even when it was hot news it wasn't getting the attention this is getting. Not every half hour. The cop in Dallas failed to de-escalate and let his anger override his compassion and common sense. Looks like he has already been tried in the media and will loose his job. Enough already. I don't mine the news being reported, hell that is the difference between us and other occupations , our mistakes are usually there for everybody to see and should be reported. We can learn from it. I just get sick of the constant cop bashing and interviews with ignorant people, who know nothing about law enforcement, when one of us fucks up. In my opinion ,Bob, the coverage has not been equal for both incidents.

[TXCharlie]

Maybe he shouldn't have run his mouth like that but it's far from "embarrassing" and worthy of admin leave. This made the media and the cop was thrown under the bus by his gutless, worthless chief. Whoda thunk?

Well, this IS the same chief who received a "no-confidence" vote last year from one of the Police Associations. That was over his new Taser, Chase, and Retirement policies, or so the story goes...

I think the big issue with the retirement policy was not replacing those people who retire in a timely manor. The chase policy was that you can't give chase unless it's a violent folony - And I'm not sure what the Taser policy was all about, but that was after a couple of deaths of people high on drugs.

[Xiphos]

Sometimes throwing up a brick wall makes it worse.

I guess I'd have to look at from the standpoint of if it was my mother dying in the hospital, how I would I feel about being hassled by a traffic cossack?

Most people have no more than one or two professional contacts with a police officer. It's sad when it turns out like this one did.

I agree it could have been handled much better, but regardless it's not worth time off unless he's a consistent problem with it.