Officer having anxiety attack took ambulance sent for man dying from police shooting, report says
Police at a shooting scene redirected the first arriving ambulance to remove an officer, delaying care for the person they had just shot and weakening basic duty-of-care expectations.
Mar 11, 2026
Sources
Summary
A Connecticut inspector general report says a man shot by Bridgeport police waited an additional 10 minutes for ambulance transport after the first ambulance was used to take an officer away. The state investigation cleared the shooting as justified while documenting post-shooting decisions by officers that redirected emergency resources. The practical consequence was delayed medical transport for a critically injured person bleeding from severe internal injuries.
Reality Check
When armed agents control a scene and decide who gets emergency care first, we are watching a precedent where state power can reorder life-and-death triage without public accountability. Normalizing post-use-of-force decisions that prioritize officers over injured civilians weakens the guardrails that separate lawful force from unchecked coercion. If our institutions accept this as routine, the practical lesson becomes clear: on the ground, the state’s interests can override equal access to urgent medical aid.
Detail
<p>A state inspector general report released Tuesday describes events following the March 31 police shooting of Dyshan Best, 39, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Best was shot in the back as he fled from officers and later died.</p><p>The report concluded the shooting was justified because Best had a gun in his hand and the pursuing officer feared for his safety. It also documented post-shooting actions that affected medical response.</p><p>According to the investigation, the first ambulance called for Best arrived at 6:02 p.m., about 14 minutes after the shooting. The report says that ambulance was not used to transport Best; instead, at the urging of other officers, it was used to take a white officer, Erin Perrotta, away from the scene after she experienced a “mild anxiety attack” and had been involved in the foot chase. The report says Best then waited an additional 10 minutes for an ambulance.</p>