A report released on Thursday said several mistakes were made by paramedics, police and Howard University Hospital after a journalist was beaten and robbed near his home in Northwest Washington in January.
New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum was taking a walk after dinner when, police said, he was hit on the head with a pipe and robbed. Rosenbaum died two days later. Two men have been charged with murder.
One council member said according to a summary of the 80-page report from the Office Of The Inspector General, it appeared that the EMS, police and hospital responses in the Rosenbaum case were full of failures.
"People have the right to be concerned," said Mayor Anthony Williams. "Because if this were pervasive, it would affect pervasively service to our citizens. The brief review I've gotten so far shows there was alarming indifference and a cavalier attitude by a number of people."
Rosenbaum's brother told News4 that the family had just received a copy of the report and was reading through it Thursday night. They were scheduled to hold a news conference on Friday.
There was no comment from police, EMS or Howard University officials.
Some of the harshest criticisms in the report involve EMS workers, News4 reported. The report said the ambulance driver got lost, adding six minutes to the trip, and that emergency medical technicians did not thoroughly assess Rosenbaum after smelling alcohol. The EMTs also never checked for other problems, such as trauma.
The EMT in charge also decided to take Rosenbaum to Howard University Hospital, almost two miles farther than Sibley, for personal reasons, according to the report.
"It's an indictment of the EMS system," said Councilman Phil Mendelson, who chairs the city's Judiciary Committee. "The call to 911 was handled properly, along with the autopsy. Everything else was fraught with failure."
The report also criticizes police for not securing the scene and determining if a crime had been committed, and said nurses at Howard did not properly assess Rosenbaum. The report concluded that multiple failures have generated concerns about the systemic nature of problems related to the delivery of basic emergency medical services citywide.
"It's something I take seriously," Williams said. "We're going to be working to see if additional action is taken and if there are people who need to be held accountable, they will be held accountable."
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