A city paramedic is arrested for assaulting a patient

BALTIMORE, Md. - Lives are saved every day in ambulances, even when they're on the line from a self-induced drug overdose.  That was the case for Baltimore City paramedic Shaun White, 31, on September 8th.

He left the station at Eutaw and Lombard following an overdose call. 

"She's a combative patient on the stretcher.  He had to tie her down because she was wailing away, gets her in the back of the medic unit, she actually had to be restrained in the hospital, and he's arrested," said Rick Hoffman, president, Baltimore City firefighter’s union.      

Hoffman says the incident is on tape.  He watched it, but he wouldn't share the video with us.  Hoffman says the union will stand behind White.

"Patient care, maybe the level of patient care not being as good as it should be.  I'll accept that.  An arrest, no way in hell," said Hoffman. 

Hoffman says White was handcuffed in front of his peers at the station.  According to online records, he was charged with two counts of second degree assault.

A spokesman for the fire department would only confirm White was arrested on allegations of assault.

"But the fire department, we did begin our own internal investigation into these allegations," said Chief PIO Kevin Cartwright, Baltimore City Fire Dept.     

Hoffman says White is out on bail, but no one answered the door at his Westminster address.  He says the tape shows a paramedic who may need his own help, but not someone who belongs in jail.

"Whatever happened to taking care of your own people?  Whatever happened to that?  Where in your leadership skills did you learn that in the books where you want to arrest your own folks."

White is suspended without pay.