Footage from a police body camera showing a nurse in Salt Lake City being arrested is going viral. Her skirmish with authorities stems from her refusal to allow city police to draw blood from an unconscious reserve officer with the Rigby Police Department who’s recuperating at the hospital.
In the video, nurse Alex Wubbels holds her phone with her supervisor on the line as she explains to Detective Jeff Payne why he can’t get a blood sample from Rigby reserve police officer William Gray.
“The three things that allow us to do that are if you have an electronic warrant, patient consent or patient under arrest, and neither of those things—the patient can’t consent,” Wubbels announces to her supervisor and the detective in the video. “He’s told me repeatedly that he doesn’t have a warrant, and the patient is not under arrest.”
After Wubbel’s supervisor tells Payne he’s making a mistake by threatening a nurse, the officer reaches for the phone, says he’s done, and handcuffs Wubbels.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports police are performing an internal investigation after the incident, but the detective remains on duty. In a written report, the detective says he was sent to the hospital to get a blood sample from Gray to determine if he had illegal substances in his system after a July 26 traffic collision. Gray is a trucker when not doing police work.
A man fleeing Utah Highway Patrol died when he crashed into Gray’s semi head-on. Witnesses say Gray was on fire when he got out of his rig.
The nurse in the video, Alex Wubbels, was not charged. She tells the Tribune she’s heard anecdotally of police bullying health care workers and that the video illustrates a problem exists.
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