Two paramedics who were supposed to be saving a man's life have been charged with his murder.
Peter Cadigan, 50, and Peggy Finlay 40, have been charged with first-degree murder after a man suffocated to death when they strapped him onto a gurney face-down.
On 18 December 2022, 35-year-old Ear L. Moore Jr. sadly lost his life after calling 911 from his Springfield, Illinois home.
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As per Fox News, Moore was apparently a severe alcoholic who hadn't drank for days and dialled 911 for help.
When officers turned up at his home, a woman instead answered the door who explained that Moore was having hallucinations.
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In released bodycam footage, she says: "He called you guys for no reason," with the officer then asking if Moore needed an ambulance.
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She added: "Every time I take him to the hospital, all they do is release him.
"He’s seeing stuff that’s not there and hearing voices in his head."
Once the paramedics from the private company LifeStar Ambulance Service turned up, they placed Moore on the stretcher lying flat on his stomach and applied a medical strap across his back and lower body.
Moore was then taken to hospital but was pronounced dead about 45 minutes after the paramedics strapped him down onto the stretcher.
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In a coroner's report obtained by the outlet People, Moore's cause of death was due to a 'compressional and positional asphyxia, due to prone face-down restraint on a paramedic transportation stretcher due to straps across the back'.
Cadigan and Finley were arrested in connection to Moore's murder on Monday (9 January), and could face anywhere between 20 and 60 years in prison if convicted, according to NPR Illinois.
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President of the NAACP’s Springfield chapter, Teresa Haley, compared the tragic death to that of George Floyd's in 2020.
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He also died of positional asphyxia when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knees into Floyd's back for over nine minutes.
Haley told the Illionois Times that it was 'almost worse' because body-cam footage showed Moore struggling to breathe.
She said: "If this guy was already … having difficulties breathing, and then you put him on a stretcher facedown, I mean, it was hostile to see the video and how they treated him.
"They literally threw his hands behind and just strapped him down. He couldn’t move if he wanted to."
Callum Jones