Daughter says she watched Detroit EMTs assault dad in ambulance
DETROIT (WJBK) - Two Detroit EMTs have been charged with assault after being accused of hitting a man they were taking to a hospital.
37-year-old Byron Beales and 25-year-old Brian Bachynski were both charged Thursday with assaulting the man as they were taking him to the hospital while he had a seizure.
36-year-old Romaine Robinson had a seizure in August and was being taken to the hospital by the EMTs. That's when the assault allegedly happened. Robinson says he doesn't remember much but woke up in the hospital with a black eye and cuts and bruises all over his body.
"I woke up in the hospital and I was kind of surprised. My fiance came in and told me I had a black eye. She showed me the picture and I was like 'where'd this come from?'" Robinson said.
His 12-year-old daughter, Ja-Nae, said she saw the entire thing happen.
"I looked out the window and I saw the ambulance was rocking back and forth. All I heard was my dad say 'help me'," she said.
Robinson's attorney, Mike Morse, says Robinson still has eye problems and damage to his brain and Ja-Nae is traumatized. He says his firm plans to file a multi-million dollar civil suit.
"This is a shocking story. Two trusted EMT personnel come out to the home from the city and beat this man senseless, unconscious basically," Morse said. "These two EMT personnel beat the crap out of him and put him in the hospital for no reason. And we still don't know the reason."
While the attorney for Beales and Bachynski was unavailable for comment Thursday, EMS chief Sean Larkin provided this statement to FOX 2:
"Once the Department was notified of the charges filed against the two medics, both were immediately placed on leave, without pay, pending the outcome of their case."
"I'm glad they're off the job, that's the main thing, because I don't want them to do that to anybody else," Robinson said.
Beales and Bachynski are due back in court next month. Robinson plans to file the civil suit next month as well.