Salt Lake City mayor, police chief apologize for officer who handcuffed nurse

Salt Lake City’s mayor and police chief apologized on Friday for a police officer handcuffing and dragging a hospital nurse who had refused to let law enforcement draw a blood sample from an unconscious patient.

“Like many of you, I watched the video of police officers interacting with University of Utah Medical Center nurse Alex Wubbles [sic] for the first time through the media late yesterday,” Mayor Jackie Biskupski said in a statement.

“What I saw is completely unacceptable to the values of my Administration and of the values of the Salt Lake City Police Department. I extend a personal apology to Ms. Wubbles for what she has been through for simply doing her job.”

{mosads}

Hospital and officer body camera footage show Alex Wubbels, a nurse at University of Utah Medical Center, telling officers that the hospital would not allow them to draw blood from a patient without a warrant, the patient’s consent or if the patient were under arrest.

Detective Jeff Payne then told the nurse that he would leave “with blood in vials or body in tow.” He then said the nurse was under arrest, before placing her in handcuffs. 

Payne has been suspended from the blood draw program, Police Chief Mike Brown said. He said that the blood draw policy has since been replaced. 

“It is my sincere desire to get back to a very cooperative, respectful, and friendly relationship with our ‘brothers and sisters in white’ we work so closely with,” Brown said in a statement.

“Salt Lake City Police Officers have a very soft spot in our hearts for all medical professionals. We know that if we are ever hurt in the line of duty, it is their caring hands that will perhaps save our lives one day.”