"No one, no one. He was just laying there." That's what a frustrated Tim Oates told us Friday. As 51-year-old Sam Boyd lay fatally injured on H Street Oates says police told him to stand back. "I am CPR trained. I have the card in my wallet. We ran over there to help the guy. The person who got out of the car, the detective told us not to touch the gentleman."
The Bakersfield Fire Department says it took four minutes for crew members from Station 1 to arrive and begin CPR and Boyd was already in full cardiac arrest. In an autopsy performed Monday the coroner ruled Boyd died of multiple blunt force injuries to the chest and head. Oates' roommate said he's in disbelief. "The question I have is why he was left laying in the street for so long without being attended to."
But the BPD insists when officers first checked, Oates was still breathing. But Sergeant Mary DeGeare wouldn't say who was monitoring it. "The timing and preciseness of all the actions will be something that will be addressed in the critical incident investigation."
That's an internal investigation handled by BPD administrators. DeGeare says detective Peter Beagley told investigators he was going the speed limit of 40 miles per hour and was not using his cell phone at the time of the crash. And he told investigators Boyd turned directly into his path.
Investigators say they found alcohol on Boyd but are awaiting a toxicology test that should take 4-6 weeks. Police officers are trained in basic first aid and CPR. They should at an accident scene render aide consistent with their training and capabilities.
But you can't say whether that happened in this case? "No." Civil Attorney Steven Gibbs says the police department could face liability not just for failing to help, but also for preventing others from doing so. "This is where I think it may be in this situation, if you put that person in that risk. Then, there is a much more heightened reasonableness that you are required to provide some kind of aide."
It's familiar ground for Gibbs who is suing the city on behalf of Doctor Mohammad Harb in a separate case. In that case Gibbs alleges a police officer turned away an ambulance because she thought Doctor Harb was drunk. It turns out the doctor had been driving erratically after having a stroke.
The reality is the person who actually makes the call is the person with the badge and the gun. And ultimately you get judged later on by what decisions you made under those circumstances.
