By Bill Carey
EMS1
ST. LOUIS — A delayed response by a St. Louis Fire Department EMS crew when a rock was thrown at an ambulance is at the center of a wrongful-death lawsuit filed last week against the city and EMTs Michael Wojick and Lataira Frazier.
Rodney LaRue was riding a motorized scooter on Sept. 27, 2021, when he was struck by a vehicle, First Alert 4 reported.
A police officer witnessed the crash, responded immediately and requested an ambulance. As the ambulance was on its way to the crash, someone threw a rock at it, causing a dent.
The lawsuit states Wojick and Frazier took the ambulance out of service for 29 minutes of the 38-minute total response time. It is unclear why the EMTs stopped for that amount of time, but the petition states the vehicle was still capable of operation and transport.
LaRue was being treated at the scene by other members of the fire department, however, no vehicle there could transport him, the petition reads.
It was unclear why a second ambulance was not dispatched.
A supervisor eventually directed Wojick and Frazier to respond to the scene. LaRue was transported to Barnes-Jewish Hospital where he later died.