Brevard fire medic under investigation for allegedly insensitive remark to shooting victim
A member of the Brevard County Fire Rescue staff is under investigation after he allegedly made a racially insensitive remark to a man being transported by ambulance to the hospital after the man had been shot by a sheriff's deputy.
It is the second incident in a month involving alleged racial insensitivity by a BCFR employee. In the previous incident, an off-duty Brevard County Fire Rescue firefighter was seen in a photo on social media wearing blackface at a beachside Halloween party.
The latest incident — which occurred last week — came to light Tuesday, when County Commissioner Bryan Lober referenced it during a commission meeting. Lober said annual training for BCFR personnel on appropriate workplace behavior and the county's organizational culture may be warranted as a way to help prevent future such incidents from occurring.
Commissioners were notified of the latest incident Monday, during separate phone calls with Brevard County Manager Frank Abbate.
According to accounts of their conversations with the county manager, Lober, County Commission Vice Chair Curt Smith and Commissioner John Tobia said the shooting victim was shot in the leg by a Brevard County sheriff's deputy during a confrontation, after the man had threatened deputies with a weapon.
According to the commissioners, the shooting victim asked a BCFR fire medic treating him en route to the hospital why the deputies didn't shoot him in the chest. The medic then allegedly replied to the man, who is white, that his injuries might have been more severe if he were Black.
The names of the BCFR employee and the shooting victim were not disclosed.
More: Sheriff's Office deputies shoot man armed with flare gun following robbery Tuesday night
Lober described the incident — if it transpired as reported — as being "patently inappropriate," "extremely offensive" and demonstrating "incredibly poor judgment."
"It's so offensive to me, it's intolerable," Lober said.
Brevard County Public Safety Director Matthew Wallace declined to comment Tuesday, beyond what was discussed during the County Commission meeting,
Brevard County Communications Director Don Walker said the BCFR employee has been assigned to "light duty" — in which he doesn't interact with the public — while the investigation continues.
Abbate said the county trains all employees when they are hired on issues related to bias, and has anti-discrimination policies in place. Abbate said county officials also are looking into whether additional training may be needed, including consulting with officials at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute at Patrick Space Force Base.
"We are trying our best to stay on top of these things, and address them appropriately," Abbate said.
Commissioners said they would let Abbate decide on the staff training issue, rather than taking any action on the matter.
"This is really a management decision," Tobia said.
Commissioner Rita Pritchett told Abbate that "the buck stops with you on this."
Lober said he would have liked to have seen the County Commission be more proactive in seeking information on the potential for implementing more training for BCFR staff.
"If an employee has personal beliefs or ideology that I disagree with, that's fine," Lober said.
Where he draws the line is if those beliefs interfere with a first responder's ability to serve the public and work with first responders from other agencies, Lober added.
"We're not talking about sensitivity training, which I don't want. I'm talking about appropriate workplace behavior training," Lober said.
But other commissioners felt that is an issue for Abbate to handle, and they wanted to let the investigation of the BCFR employee go forward without getting involved in the process.
"We're treading a fine line here," County Commission Chair Kristine Zonka said.
"We have to be careful and follow due process because employees do have rights, too," Zonka said. "Until we know the outcome of the investigation, I just want caution moving forward that we don't overreact."
Smith said after the meeting that, "I think we should consider some forgiveness here, as opposed to just castigating someone and branding them for the rest of their lives."
"I would hope that these two incidents are not defining moments for these two people involved," Smith said. "That they would be given a chance to be forgiven. And that they could put these incidents behind them and that they would be isolated events never to occur again."
BCFR Chief Mark Schollmeyer told commissioners these are the first two incidents of alleged racial insensitivity he was aware of in the department. Schollmeyer has been in the department for 33 years, including 15 years in a leadership role.
There are about 450 first responders on the BCFR staff.
Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @bydaveberman.
Tyler Vazquez is the North Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Vazquez at 321-917-7491 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @tyler_vazquez
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard County fire medic being investigated for alleged racist remark
