Tuesday, September 11, 2012

** Indiana ambulance target of drive-by shooting

** UK ambulance manager worked EMS for 18 years despite murder conviction

UNITED STATES NEWS

** A Fort Wayne, Indiana paramedic is now out of hospital after being hit by windshield shrapnel during a drive-by shooting early Sunday morning. The Journal Gazette (September 9) said the 2:58 a.m. incident played out after EMS was called to attend a victim stabbed at a local nightclub. According to the newspaper, while transporting the patient to hospital, a white vehicle opened fire on both the ambulance and the patient’s family’s car trailing behind. Three of the family members were shot, as was the ambulance itself. The occupants of the white car were arrested a short time later by police.

UNITED KINGDOM NEWS

** EMS brass with the South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) have egg on their face after finding one of their senior managers is actually a convicted murderer. That is the word from the Oxford Mail (Amanda Williams/September 8) which said the Health and Care Professions Council (HPC) barred Rodney King from practicing after a hearing on Friday. According to the newspaper, King, who had worked EMS since 1994, was convicted in 1981 at the age of 16 in the death of Maidenhead photographer Robin Warren, 42. In collusion with several other youths, King had apparently killed Warren as part of a gay bashing. Because he never declared his criminal past on any employment application forms, his record was only discovered after a November 2010 arrest for drunk driving. Despite King slipping through the cracks, however, the SCAS said they are rigorous in doing employee criminal records checks and were currently re-examining the past of all frontline staff.