Officer with gun reports he was denied treatment
via Kaitlin Durbin @Mansfield News Journal
MANSFIELD – Officer safety is a chief concern in the streets, but now some are questioning it at care facilities, too.
Two months ago, Plymouth officer Wayne Liggett Sr. said he was denied treatment at Walk In Urgent Care, 1341 S. Trimble Road, because he was carrying his duty weapon. Even after it was verified he was a police officer and legally within right to carry his firearm, he was asked to leave, he said.
The officer, who has been in law enforcement for 33 years, said he was seeing floaters and flashes of light in his vision and knew something wasn’t right. He called ahead to the urgent care to ensure they had equipment to view the eye.
In a private room, an employee asked him to remove his jacket to take his vitals. As a courtesy, Liggett said he told the person he was carrying his duty weapon under his shirt, in case they would see it. He also had written down on the sign-in form he was employed as a Plymouth police officer, he said.
The employee took his vitals, said the doctor would be in soon and left.
The next knock at the door Liggett didn’t expect.
Several Mansfield Police Department officers told him to come out slowly with his hands up. More than one of them were pointing their firearm at him, he said.
Liggett said he was placed in handcuffs while police verified his identity as an auxiliary officer, which took only minutes. He was carrying his badge and ID in his wallet.
The incident was cause for concern for Plymouth Police Chief Charles Doan. He questioned how other law enforcement officers will be treated in an emergency and whether the urgent care mishap was an isolated incident.
“Officers carry to be prepared, and citizens do too,” Doan said. “If you have a concealed carry and get hurt, are they going to say, ‘Get him out of here?’ ”
That is a good question Police Chief Doan!
This is another example of the hyper-fear of guns that the media and our schools have created. In this case no one was seriously harmed, but a similar situation like this could leave someone dead.
Here we have an off duty police officer check into an urgent care center and notify the staff that he is a police officer and is carrying a gun .
The staff sends him in the exam room to take his vitals; this is where they get their first glimpse at his actual firearm.
What do they do next? They call a squadron of police to come in remove this man at gunpoint.
Once he was cleared by police the urgent care center still refused to treat him, and asked him to leave. Unbelievable!
The next day he spoke to his eye doctor and he in fact did have a serious issue that should have been treated the day before at the urgent care center.
What if a CCW or other off duty officer came in with chest pains, or trouble breathing? Once they see the gun are they going to refuse him service and watch them die on the ground outside?
This is absolutely unacceptable by any standard. If the urgent care facility does not approve of guns, they could have asked the officer to return it to his vehicle instead of calling the police on him and having him removed.
This is, unfortunately, and a reminder that many people and businesses out there will just not ever be reasonable about guns or people carrying guns. Be careful.
