Following a patient’s death under their care last month, two EMS personnel in Illinois are accused of first-degree murder, according to the Springfield Police Department.
According to criminal filings, Peggy Finley and Peter Cadigan was charged by Dan Wright, the State’s Attorney for Sangamon County, with the death of an Illinois man on December 18, 2022.
The Springfield Police Department said in a statement that the EMS personnel were responding to a plea for help with a patient who was “suffering from hallucinations related to alcohol withdrawal.”
In the recently released bodycam video, Finley can be heard yelling at the guy, who identified himself as Earl Moore, to sit up and “stop playing foolish.”
Before finally strapping the patient to a stretcher “in a prone position,” Finley is seen on video saying, “We ain’t carrying you” and “I am seriously not in the mood for this dumb [stuff],” while also using an expletive, according to the police department. Moore, 35, was then placed on the stretcher.
After the EMS personnel “behaved indifferently to the patient’s condition,” the Springfield police reportedly made an effort to treat Moore.
Finley and Cadigan’s employer, LifeStar Ambulance Service, Inc., said “no comment” when asked about the continuing inquiry by ABC News.
Police officers can also be seen helping Moore onto the stretcher and out of the residence on the bodycam footage.
In a press release, Springfield police stated that the officers “made efforts to assist the patient, to get him the care he needed, even waiting on the site to verify the medical staff put the patient into the ambulance.”
“The cops, who are not emergency medical personnel, lack the training and equipment to administer the required medical care or to transport victims in this type of circumstance,” the statement reads.
Moore passed away upon his admission to the hospital, according to the Springfield Police Department.
At a press conference called by Wright on Tuesday, Teresa Haley, the NAACP branch president for Springfield, stated that watching the video brought to mind George Floyd, a Black man from Minneapolis who was killed by former police officer Derek Chauvin during an arrest in May 2020.
“His hands were actually thrown behind him as they restrained him. He is face down and unable to move even if he wanted to “explained Haley. “They did not have the slightest compassion for this person. He ought to be living right now.”
Finely and Cadigan are being held in the Sangamon County Jail on $1 million bonds, according to court records.
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