Patient Dies After Calif. Paramedics Delayed by Protest

Feb. 06--Paramedics took nearly a half hour to reach a stricken 62-year-old man, who later died, because they were told to wait for a police escort as a result of a protest over police brutality in downtown Berkeley, city records show.

It would have taken just a couple of minutes for Berkeley firefighters to drive from Station No. 2 on Berkeley Way to Alvin Henry Jones Jr., who had collapsed near an elevator at an apartment complex at 2175 Kittredge St. on the evening of Dec. 7.

But hundreds of people had gathered downtown to protest against police killings of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York.

Berkeley firefighters, following protocol, were instructed not to go directly to the scene. Instead, they were required to stay at the fire station and wait for police to accompany them, according to Fire Department records first released to the Berkeleyside website through a state Public Records Act request.

It was at least the second time in recent years that a protest in Berkeley caused a departure in emergency response in a case that ended with someone's death.

In 2012, Peter Cukor, 67, called police about an intruder on his property in the Berkeley hills, but no officers showed up before the stranger bludgeoned him to death. Police said they had been responding only to emergency calls while girding for what turned out to be a small Occupy march.

Cukor's family resolved a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city after police agreed to tell people calling for help that officers might be delayed.

Some protesters have said the cases reveal serious missteps by police and paramedics, with blame shifted to them in a bid to stifle their message.

In the December incident, Berkeley police had issued advisories stating that 500 to 600 people were marching downtown. "Traffic is heavy in the area, please avoid," one alert said.

"It was reported to the crews a large group of protesters were within a block of the call, and the medical response were to stage in quarters until a police escort to escort us to the call," said a Fire Department memo.

Although the 911 call about Jones --who had collapsed, and was having difficulty breathing --came in at 6:39 p.m., police didn't arrive at Station No. 2 until 7:03 p.m., around the time that other officers were monitoring protesters who were reaching police headquarters on Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

The tandem police and fire team didn't reach Jones until 7:07 p.m., far longer than the Fire Department's average response time of 5.5 minutes.

Police stayed on the scene "for protection" as paramedics reached Jones, who was "quickly brought to ambulance due to protest getting closer," the Fire Department memo said. A battalion chief told the ambulance crew that "immediate transport (was) needed due to volatile protest and scene safety."

Jones arrived at a hospital 52 minutes after the 911 call. He died two days later from natural causes, according to the Alameda County coroner.

The 911 call was placed a little more than an hour before paramedics were called to help a man who was hit by a hammer while trying to stop protesters looting the RadioShack store at Dwight Way and Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley.

Protesters, angry about the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner -- and the use of tear gas by Berkeley police a day earlier -- would go on to smash the windows of other businesses, set fires, throw objects at police and climb onto Highway 24 in Oakland.

"In any situation where there's a potential for violence to a patient or to others, it's standard protocol to work with law enforcement agencies to make sure the scene is what we call 'secure' for firefighters and paramedics to enter," Berkeley Fire Chief Gil Dong said Thursday. "Until a scene is safe for people to enter, you don't risk another human life to save another human life."

The chief said there have been instances in which fire crews in Berkeley have been pelted with rocks and bottles, and that it would be inaccurate to assume firefighters would automatically be greeted by protesters "with open arms."

Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee

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