Salt Lake City Police DepartmentThe police officer who arrested a nurse for doing her job, while caught on camera using unnecessary force, has been fired.
Utah’s Salt Lake Police Department dismissed officer Jeff Payne after footage from his own body camera caught him dragging nurse Alex Wubbles out of the burns unit.
Wubbles had refused to take blood from a patient as it’s against hospital protocol to take blood without a person’s consent.
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The University Hospital nurse was looking after a truck driver who had arrived in an unconscious state after being involved in a head on collision with another driver – he allegedly swerved into oncoming traffic during a police chase.
Officer Payne insisted Wubbles take the truck driver’s blood, but without his approval she wouldn’t go ahead with the procedure.
However Payne wasn’t having any of it, despite Wubbles showing him evidence of the hospital policy which prevents them from taking blood from a patient without a form of consent.
Salt Lake City Police DepartmentPayne then arrested Wubbles – who used to be an Olympic Skier – in an over-aggressive manner.
Footage shows the nurse being led out of the burns unit and placed into the back of a police van whilst shouting ‘I did nothing wrong!’.
She was left in the back of the police car for 20 minutes before being let go without charge.
The police department has now sacked Officer Payne after footage of the arrest was made public, with his department stating his actions ‘left a poor image of the company’, reports The Mirror.
Salt Lake City Police DepartmentSpeaking to NBC’s Today show Wubbles explained:
The only job I have as a nurse is to keep my patients safe.
A blood draw – it gets thrown around there like it’s some simple thing – but blood is your blood, it’s your property.
All seven members of Salt Lake City’s council extended their apologies to nurse Wubbles for having to endure Officer Payne’s unnecessary use of force.
