Pennsylvania State Police effectively killed a man, hours after arresting him for drunk driving. They arrested him yards from his house, handcuffed him, and took him to the hospital for a blood alcohol test. While walking into the hospital the man stumbled and fell. Unable to break his fall, he hit his head and died.
Edward Ambruch, 64, died after falling on his head outside a hospital while in the custody of state troopers from the Hazleton barracks, said police. Ambruch had been arrested moments before, at about 2 a.m., on evidence of drunken driving while traveling on state Route 3020 in Black Creek Township.Police say Ambruch stumbled on the pavement at Hazleton General Hospital on East Broad Street, where he was going for a blood-alcohol test, and was unable to break his fall because his hands were handcuffed. He hit his head on the pavement, police said, and was taken to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville. He died at 1:24 p.m. Wednesday.
Ambruch’s son, 47-year-old Thomas Ambruch of Canton, Pa., said he and other family members talked with a Hazleton barracks supervisor who wasn’t on scene when his father fell. He said the supervisor told him one trooper went to the hospital door and another stayed back near the car, leaving Ambruch alone.
“No one was paying attention to my father,” Thomas Ambruch said. “Once police take custody of you, they have to assume some responsibility for your safety.”
I say that the officers responsible for this man's death should not only lose their jobs, their pensions, but also be charged with manslaughter. It is overzealous policing that lead to his arrest in the first place. He was only 20 yards from his home. According to cops, he was falling down drunk. If he was, why was he left alone?
Knowing how cops work, they will put them on 'administrative leave', probably with pay, and after a half-hearted investigation will be covered up.
Cops jobs is to protect their own power, and the power of an ever increasingly intrusive government.
Posted by psugrad98 at July 1, 2006 11:22 AM | TrackBack
