Three Wa. State Firefighters Followed Dept. Policy; They Did Not Intervene In Deadly Altercation
Kent Fire Chief Jim Schneider and other department officials said Wednesday that firefighters in Kent, like other area departments, are trained to help sick or injured people. They aren't trained to physically intervene in altercations or subdue people; that's the job of police, Schneider said.
The Kent firefighters sounded the siren of a fire engine and yelled at the two men in the fight Tuesday afternoon in hopes of breaking up the quarrel.
But the fight suddenly turned deadly when one of the men stabbed the other with the shaft of a broken golf club.
The assailant fled on foot and the firefighters rushed to help the wounded man, who died at the scene of the altercation on Naden Avenue near downtown Kent.
Although the firefighters didn't physically intervene in the altercation, they radioed police to report the fight and then provided a description of the suspect, who was arrested minutes later.
"Our policy is made for a reason,'' Schneider, the fire chief, said.
"Firefighters in the past have gone into scenes that weren't secure and were hurt, injured or killed,'' Schneider said.
According to police, firefighters in two fire engines were stopped on Willis Street for the traffic signal at 74th Avenue South when they saw two men arguing along Naden Avenue, a street that dead-ends more than 100 feet north of Willis.
One was wielding a golf club and the other was in a fighting stance when a firefighter hit the siren and firefighters yelled at them to stop.
The two men, identified in court documents as Carl Alan Gentis, 41, and James Grant Phillips, 43, looked at the fire engines. When Phillips' attention was diverted by the siren, Gentis grabbed the golf club away from him. Gentis then struck Phillips and when the head broke off the golf club, stabbed Phillips with the shaft, court documents said.
Lt. Kyle Ohashi, a fire department spokesman, said Wednesday the firefighters who witnessed the fatal assault were declining interviews with the media because of the ongoing police investigation.
"They followed department guidelines. We're not trained to secure a crime scene. That's a police matter,'' Ohashi said.
Ohashi said the firefighters got out of their fire engines and yelled and then began running toward the two men.
"I think at the point where they got close, the fight was pretty well over and the (injured) guy was on the ground,'' Ohashi said.
When firefighters are dispatched on emergency aid calls where somebody has been assaulted, they normally wait until police have control of the scene and any potential criminal suspects are under control before the firefighters move in to provide emergency medical aid, Ohashi said.
Kent's firefighters aren't trained to deal with unruly or "violent'' people, and firefighters don't carry chemical spray or any other type of defensive weapons, Ohashi said.
"The bottom line is, we don't want to make a situation worse,'' Ohashi said. "If one of our firefighters can be.
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