Family of Washington, D.C., Man Who Drowned During Mental Health Crisis Files Lawsuit

The lawsuit alleges that Washington’s emergency dispatch service precipitated or contributed to David Earl Griffin’s demise by misreading the severity of the scenario and thereby delaying a legislation enforcement response.

The household of David Earl Griffin—who died after leaping into the Washington Channel in March of 2022—has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the D.C. Workplace of Unified Communications, claiming that its operators impeded an efficient emergency response by misreading the severity of the scenario.

In response to WTOP Information, the 47-year-old man died on March 14, 2022, after a half-hour-long confrontation with ambulance crews. Griffin was, on the time, experiencing a psychological well being disaster within the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

“As many as 10 calls had been made to 9-1-1 inside an approximate 4 minute time span, describing Mr. Griffin’s habits and reporting that he was yelling, leaping on automobiles, and scaring bystanders,” says the lawsuit.

A dispatcher for the D.C. Workplace of Unified Communications purportedly coded incoming 9-1-1- calls about Griffin as an “overdose scenario” warranting a “Precedence 2” response—which means that “the response from emergency responders could be much more delayed than the response could be for a Precedence 1 name.”

As ambulance crews continued attempting to interact Griffin, an EMT known as a “10-33,” indicating that “they had been in imminent hazard.”

“Mr. Griffin was in disaster. But police didn’t even obtain the decision for about 22 minutes and didn’t response for not less than half-hour, an unconscionable delay in response as a result of emergency dispatcher’s incorrect classification of the decision as a drug overdose warranting a Precedence 2 response,” the lawsuit alleges. “That response was inconceivably delayed even additional by the emergency dispatcher’s failure to report back to cops the change in location the EMT personnel had reported when EMTs known as dispatch pleading for help.”

“On account of these failures,” the criticism alleges, “Mr. Griffin died.”

Cary J. Hansel, an lawyer for Griffin’s daughter—Aujah Griffin—stated that the delay contributed to Griffin’s preventable demise.

“Had cops arrived on-scene earlier than Mr. Griffin jumped into the Washington Channel, these officers would have been in a position to help in controlling Mr. Griffin, stopping Mr. Griffin from leaping into the channel and avoiding his demise,” Hansel stated.

The lawsuit, notes The Washington Submit, names each the D.C. Workplace of Unified Communications and the mayor of Washington, D.C., as defendants.

“Mr. Griffin was gregarious, enjoyable to be round, and had a robust sense of self and morality that guided him by life,” Hansel stated in an announcement. “Mr. Griffin’s demise was a tragedy which resulted instantly from town’s years-long and persevering with failures to function a functioning 9-1-1 system or present different interventions for these in psychological well being disaster.”

The Griffin household is looking for a jury trial and unspecified damages, with Hansel saying that “any cheap award on this case could be within the seven-figure vary.”

Sources

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