By Michael Mullins
A firefighter was arrested by
the California Highway Patrol (CHP) after he refused to move his emergency
vehicle from a lane after being ordered to do so by police. The firefighter was
assisting a crash victim at the time of this arrest.
The dispute and arrest were
caught on camera by a CBS 8 News crew which was at the scene covering the
accident on Wednesday.
In a video, 36-year-old
firefighter Jacob Gregoire, a 12 year member of the Chula Vista Fire
Department, is handcuffed and led away by an unidentified highway patrolman.
"It's unbelievable you
have to do this," the cop says as he slaps the cuffs on Gregoire.
"It's unbelievable that
you guys have to treat us like this," Gregoire responded to the cop in the
video. "We are on the road trying to help people."
"We asked you. We asked
you to clear the road and you said no, and you are getting arrested for not
moving it," the cop snapped back before leading the firefighter away from
the camera.
During the exchange, Gregoire's
fellow firefighters are seen assisting victims at the scene from the rollover
accident. The crash victims were taken to an area hospital, but their
conditions were not reported.
In addition to not providing
the police officer's name, CHP would not say whether the officer was
reprimanded for his decision to handcuff and detain a first responder while he
was attending to victims at the scene, CBS 8 noted.
The CHP and Chula Vista Fire
Department met Wednesday afternoon, after which they released a joint statement
to the media.
"Last night there was an
unfortunate incident at the scene of a traffic collision on I-805," the
statement read. "Both the CHP and the Chula Vista Fire Department share a
common goal of protecting the public and. . . have the utmost respect for each
other and our respective missions. This was an isolated incident and not
representative of the manner in which our agencies normally work together
toward our common goal."
Though there have been
disagreements between the two departments in the past, this is reportedly the
first time a patrolman has arrested a firefighter for a disagreement at the
scene of an accident.
