MO - Dad alleges he was pepper-sprayed, cuffed by police as daughter, 16, lay dying

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Complete story at Daily Mail link:

Police officers pepper-sprayed and handcuffed father as his daughter lay dying because 'he shouted
at EMT to help her’ – and now his son’s been barred from the army for coming to his defense

• Brooke Russell, 16, shot herself in the head and was found by her family in the park behind her house in Joplin, Missouri
• They rushed her to a waiting ambulance where Brooke's body allegedly fell off the gurney in front of her shocked family
• Her father, Kevin lost his temper at this and he and his son Brant were pepper sprayed
• They are now facing three charges each of assault, disturbing the peace, and obstruction - which they vehemently deny
• Both were handcuffed to a bench in jail for 3 1/2 hours - during which Brooke passed away
 
What a beautiful girl. Praying for her and her family...a very tragic experience for them. I do wonder what the whole story is in regards to that evening. jmo
 
I got tears. The letter, or part of it seem so innocent. In all of her pics she seems so happy. I too wonder what took place that night.

I think the charges should get dropped. The family was in shock, and since I am only getting one side of the story, it seems compassion is also missing.
 
I read this earlier,such a tragedy all round.

I agree compassion was/is clearly lacking. I would be going crazy if that was my child and they were that careless she fell off the gurney.

Charges need to be dropped like yesterday

Sent from my 'alternate reality' using my hippocampus
 
Now this is just awful; they should drop all charges, they should know better. Omg, the pain they are feeling....I lost my best friend when I moved here. Of all people, for me NOT to see that she was hurting; that she was helping too many others, that she was always there, for EVERYONE; yet I missed the signs. She was giving her things away; even to me. There are not many days that I don't miss or think of her. Suicide; leaves such horrific scars for those left behind. It is a selfish act; and I use Irene's dishes with love; and care, and I think of her each time I use them. She had given me these very old glass square dishes with glass tops; like russian nesting dolls they all nest inside each other one bigger than the next.

She took an overdose of percocet. She had a disabeled child and a loving husband and a huge garden.....the loss of her love; there were 100s at her funeral. I had to leave when I started to uncontrollably sob out loud. Rare for me; in public...Suicide. It's not the answer; it's not the way out; what it leaves behind is what should be stressed. That pain; for the families and friends is sometimes too hard to bear...

they should drop all the charges and have a heart. :(
 
poor family

Joplin police, please drop the charges!

wonder where Brooke got the gun from and what was so bad that it drove her to suicide
 
for someone who has been so depressed I can tell you that a lot of us dont have coping skills. I know I dont. When bad things happen I feel they will last forever. I swear there are times when I knew if I didnt have a son I wouldnt be here on this earth. I hang on cause of my son.

One day when he is grown up I will tell him how more than once he has saved his mother from oblivion.
 
Charges should be dropped, but Dad should also do the right thing and reach out to the EMTs and acknowledge that his behavior and actions escalated an already tragic situation. Obviously, the EMTs were doing their best to help and in the chaos her body fell. It happens. Doesn't mean they "weren't doing their job" and his actions made everyone else's job that much harder. That said, I wonder where she got the gun? Perhaps it's easier for Dad to focus his anger and "outrage" at the first responders than it is to ask or face up to certain other questions.
 
Charges should be dropped, but Dad should also do the right thing and reach out to the EMTs and acknowledge that his behavior and actions escalated an already tragic situation. Obviously, the EMTs were doing their best to help and in the chaos her body fell. It happens. Doesn't mean they "weren't doing their job" and his actions made everyone else's job that much harder. That said, I wonder where she got the gun? Perhaps it's easier for Dad to focus his anger and "outrage" at the first responders than it is to ask or face up to certain other questions.
I think if the girl fell off the gurney then the EMTs weren't doing their job.

His issue now is not outrage with the first responders; it's with being charged with three counts by LE after allegedly having been pepper-sprayed and kept handcuffed while his daughter was pronounced dead.

As for "certain other questions" about the gun - do you have any evidence where the gun came from? Your innuendo in effect blames bereaved family members.
 
I think if the girl fell off the gurney then the EMTs weren't doing their job.

His issue now is not outrage with the first responders; it's with being charged with three counts by LE after allegedly having been pepper-sprayed and kept handcuffed while his daughter was pronounced dead.

As for "certain other questions" about the gun - do you have any evidence where the gun came from? Your innuendo in effect blames bereaved family members.


Well, we'll have to agree to disagree. Mistakes happen, and I'm willing to bet the EMTs felt absolutely horrified that it happened. And I understand that his outrage has to do with the fact that he is being charged, but I wonder how much of his reaction has to do with misplaced anger. My, as you term it "innuendo" is speculation about where a 16 year old may have gotten a gun--it's concerning. I would think that if the gun came from her own house it would be a devastating dawn of reckoning for the parents, and perhaps there is some misplaced blame and deflection going on. It seems it would be best for all parties to go their separate ways now.
 
for someone who has been so depressed I can tell you that a lot of us dont have coping skills. I know I dont. When bad things happen I feel they will last forever. I swear there are times when I knew if I didnt have a son I wouldnt be here on this earth. I hang on cause of my son.

One day when he is grown up I will tell him how more than once he has saved his mother from oblivion.

My cats do that for me, they need me. I need them
 
I think if the girl fell off the gurney then the EMTs weren't doing their job.

His issue now is not outrage with the first responders; it's with being charged with three counts by LE after allegedly having been pepper-sprayed and kept handcuffed while his daughter was pronounced dead.

As for "certain other questions" about the gun - do you have any evidence where the gun came from? Your innuendo in effect blames bereaved family members.

BBM

I agree with that wholeheartedly.

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree. Mistakes happen, and I'm willing to bet the EMTs felt absolutely horrified that it happened. And I understand that his outrage has to do with the fact that he is being charged, but I wonder how much of his reaction has to do with misplaced anger. My, as you term it "innuendo" is speculation about where a 16 year old may have gotten a gun--it's concerning. I would think that if the gun came from her own house it would be a devastating dawn of reckoning for the parents, and perhaps there is some misplaced blame and deflection going on. It seems it would be best for all parties to go their separate ways now.

I don't agree with you much on this animlzrule, but I agree about the gun. The statistics are just too large to not assume that's where it came from. JMO

When I started reading the article I thought that there must be something missing, like he attacked the EMT or something. Then I came across this part of the article;

...However, Joplin Police Chief Lane Roberts told KSPR, that despite Kevin Russell's complaints, he does not have the option of going public with his officers side of the story.

'What I'll tell you is that the conduct that's alleged is directly contradictory to our values, our mission statement, our code of ethics,' the chief explained.

'Those are not the things we engage in.'...


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...dying-shouted-EMT-help-her.html#ixzz2g8LI5t6t
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

If the father was totally out of control I think they'd say there's a lot more to this story.
 
This poor family. How sad.

As for the poor girl falling of the gurney, HOW can that happen? Shouldn't at least one of the EMTs be paying attention to her?
 
Interesting that the local Joplin paper hasn't - that I can find anyway - covered this case. Also, the TV station selected for the story is from Springfield and not a local one. Hm.
 
I have worked as a first responder and shootings can be quite chaotic because we are going into a scene where a person has been shot and we have no way of knowing who has done it or if we are in danger from a perpetrator or if it was a suicide, etc. plus add in our attempts to survey the scene, assess the patient and try to administer life saving assistance.

So the emts and police may have been a bit on edge because it was a shooting, and the patient was being transported to them, as opposed to them responding to the actual scene where it occurred. i can only imagine that ot was a confusing mess and that the parents of the young girl were frantic with grief and shock.

We have had calls where we had to (gently) restrain a combative patient or a family member from interfering. Nothing like this ever. Never had a patient fall from a gurney either. But I imagine in the rush to get the patient on the way to the hospital, perhaps she wasn't restrained on the gurney or she was somehow jolted loose in the haste to make every second count.

This is an incredibly tragic story and I can't imagine having criminal charges brought about on obviously grief stricken family members who saw the horrific trauma of suicide by gunshot. I would have been out of my mind if that was my child. I think LE would do better to meet privately with the family and discuss things (with counselors on hand) to bring resolution and peace between the family and the LE / first responders.
 
As I read the story, the father and son are the ones who put the girl on the gurney.
As they arrived at the police station with Brooke, Kevin says, 'We put her on the gurney that was halfway out of the ambulance, and I screamed that my daughter had shot herself, and we needed to get her to the hospital.
At this point, I backed away because I thought they would put her in the ambulance and drive away. But they didn’t. The paramedics turned to me to ask what happened. I then saw Brooke fall on her back on the pavement and I screamed at them.
It sounds to me as if, in their panic, her relatives plunked her down on the gurney that was in the process of being removed from the ambulance and started screaming at the EMTs, distracting them.
 
As I read the story, the father and son are the ones who put the girl on the gurney. It sounds to me as if, in their panic, her relatives plunked her down on the gurney that was in the process of being removed from the ambulance and started screaming at the EMTs, distracting them.

Good catch. I can see that.
 
Before I jump on the wagon of defending the father, I would like to hear what the other side of the story is. I understand being in grief and all that, but that doesn't mean one can act any way one wants.
 

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