A Nashville firefighter was recently suspended following a February response in which he hid his nephew beneath his bunker gear in a fire apparatus following a suspected DUI wreck.
The Tennessean reports that 26-year department veteran Michael Terry returned to active duty this week after serving a 20-day suspension for a violation of rules including failure to perform his official duty, unbecoming conduct, dishonesty and abusing his position, according to city records.
"We didn't know anything about this," police spokesperson Don Aaron told the Tennessean. "The Nashville Fire Department never informed police. Based on everything we now know — much of which was learned yesterday — we are conducting a criminal investigation into the totality of the circumstances."
According to a police report, sometime in the early morning hours of Feb. 18, a white Ford SUV crashed into a ditch on Highway 100 in the Belle Meade area.
A Nashville Fire Department ladder truck and an engine responded to the scene at about 3 a.m., and when police later asked firefighters if they found anyone in the car, crew members said they had not.
"Fire personnel advised they arrived on scene and there was not a patient," reads the crash report. "Shortly after, the two fire engines left the scene roughly a minute apart."
However, notes taken by a Metro Nashville emergency dispatcher say a passerby reported finding the SUV with the headlights on, the engine running and an unresponsive man in the driver's seat whom he left "sitting inside it until fire trucks arrived."
The passerby said firefighters arrived and removed the man from the vehicle, and that as they did he appeared intoxicated and unsteady on his feet.
Police learned this week that Terry was suspended for portions of March and April in connection to the incident.
According to a fire department disciplinary report dated March 6, the driver in the crash was Terry's nephew Ben Coode. The report states that Terry put his nephew in one of the apparatus and covered him with his bunker gear to hide before taking him back to a fire station when the incident was wrapped up.
Testimony from Terry and his co-workers who responded to the crash says only Terry knew his nephew was in the apparatus.
Nashville Fire Department spokesperson Joseph Pleasant said the department will not be commenting while the investigation is open.
