The Rosenbaum Case: Whose Story Is True?
Are lies being told in the Rosenbaum case, or do D.C. police and the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department (FEMS) simply have a difference of opinion? The answer is crucial to assessing the city's response to the assault on New York Times reporter David E. Rosenbaum, who was found lying on the ground in the 3800 block of Gramercy Street NW on the night of Jan. 6. He had been robbed and beaten, and he died from his injuries two days later at Howard University Hospital. As it stands, the descriptions of Rosenbaum's condition by the two departments are as different as chalk and cheese.
Fire and Emergency Medical Services, for instance, reported in January to Edward Reiskin, deputy mayor for public safety and justice, that Rosenbaum had no externally visible gross signs of significant trauma. "The providers [firefighters on Engine 20 and emergency medical technicians in Ambulance 18] indicate that they thoroughly assessed the patient at least four different times and at no time did they discover any evidence of trauma," the report said. That assessment, it said, involved an inspection of Rosenbaum's head, neck, back, torso and extremities.
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Why is this so important? The FEMS assessment of Rosenbaum's condition concluded that he should be treated as a low-priority -- priority 3 -- patient. A finding of trauma would have required a call to upgrade Rosenbaum's handling by bringing in an advanced life support unit that was stationed just a few blocks away and staffed with skilled paramedics.
FEMS's low-priority assessment stands in sharp contrast to the account provided by police officers in Patrol Car 2021, according to a January report for Reiskin prepared by Cmdr. Michael Anzallo, superintendent of the detectives division. That report stated that "as the officers arrived on the scene, at 9:35 p.m., they found Mr. David Rosenbaum, in a semiconscious state, bleeding from his head, as a result of trauma to the head."
Fire and Emergency Medical Services Chief Adrian Thompson maintains that his staff did everything by the book. But the conflicts between the accounts of the police and FEMS are too significant to be ignored.
This week I contacted a senior D.C. police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the Rosenbaum case is before a grand jury.
The official consulted the death report, a so-called "120," filed by detectives investigating the case. The report included interviews with the police officers in Patrol Car 2021 and a visit to the crime scene. Reading from the report, the official provided the following quotes: "back of his head was bleeding," "stain of blood on the sidewalk" and "apparent trauma on the back of his head."
Jerry Pritchett was the neighbor who discovered Rosenbaum and asked his wife to call 911. In a phone conversation this week, he said that before responders arrived, he noticed a wet spot on the ground about the size of a half-dollar. He didn't think of it as blood because of the dim lighting, but he thought the spot was the result of Rosenbaum's striking his head on the ground when he repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to get up. Pritchett said that was why he placed his own slipper under Rosenbaum's head to prevent further damage. He said that in the morning light he saw that it was blood.
Individual statements filed by the four firefighters on Engine 20 and the two EMTs with Ambulance 18 make no reference to finding evidence of trauma, blood on the sidewalk or bleeding from the back of the head. At issue is whether those responders assessed and treated Rosenbaum correctly.
The police official vouched for the accuracy of the detectives' report, adding that their investigative work must stand up before grand juries and in court and they thus have more at stake than the firefighters and emergency medical technicians.
With Chief Thompson's unyielding defense of his team, and with the police department standing foursquare behind its officers, how will the dispute get resolved?
Deputy Mayor Reiskin told me on Thursday that he expects the D.C. inspector general's investigation, now underway, "will help us understand" what the first responders did or didn't do correctly in Rosenbaum's case so "we can fix it" if action is required. He said the inspector general was conducting a thorough investigation. "We haven't been given a timetable" for completion, he said.
An Ambulance Addendum
Following Rosenbaum's death, Chief Thompson pledged to reduce hospital drop-off times and to more effectively distribute EMS transport units across the city. Unfortunately, it didn't help in the case of 39-year-old Cassandra Bailey.
On March 13, as first reported by WRC-TV, Ms. Bailey was undergoing dialysis at the Capitol Hill Dialysis Center, at Ninth and M streets SE, when she suffered complications. Her family arrived at 5:25 p.m. and was told an ambulance had been called.
The following is from an internal FEMS "Event Unit" report I obtained this week:
5:45 p.m. -- Ambulance 22 is dispatched to 900 M St. SE.
5:47 -- The timer at Communications sends an alarm to the dispatcher that Ambulance 22 has not acknowledged the dispatch.
6:02 -- The HALO (automated dispatch) system sounds an alarm that Ambulance 22 is not on the scene.
6:06 -- The dispatcher extends the alarm and tries all channels to reach Ambulance 22.
6:31:21 -- Ambulance 22 finally responds en route to the scene.
6:31:24 (3 seconds later) Communications dispatcher places Ambulance 22 in service.
Ms. Bailey died minutes after arriving at the Washington Hospital Center.
Where was Ambulance 22 all that time?
