EMT Accused Of Ignoring Dying Woman Killed In Soho Shooting

Jason Green, one of the EMTs accused of ignoring a dying pregnant woman last December, was fatally shot earlier this morning in Soho. The Daily News reports, "Jason Green, 32 - who was suspended by the FDNY for 30 days for abandoning Au Bon Pain worker Eutisha Rennix in December - was shot in the face outside of Greenhouse club in Soho about 5 a.m., police said. He was off duty at the time."

Apparently Green and a friend were trying to enter the club, but his friend was turned away for not being dressed appropriately. According to the Post, "Moments later, about a block away from the club, Green and his friend got into a dispute with an armed man who stepped out of a car at Vandam and Hudson streets and fired at least two shots, police said. Green was hit two times in the torso and later died at New York Downtown Hospital."

One resident told the Post she wasn't surprised about the incident stemming from Greenhouse, "I hate to say it, but we've been waiting for something like this to happen. I've had numerous complaints filed with 311 and they never got back to us. It starts usually at 11 or 12 at night and they don't leave until 1 in the afternoon the next day." Last year, Greenhouse was hit with a $1 billion class action lawsuit and a $1.5 billion lawsuit, both accusing the establishment of discriminating against black patrons.

Green had denied the allegations that he and EMT colleague Melissa Jackson did not help Euthisa Rennix, who was six months pregnant and dying of an asthma attack. They claimed that they never saw Rennix and even if they did, they didn't have the proper medical equipment to treat her. Green also told the NY Times, "You're telling me that at 9:13 in the morning somebody is going to drop dead in front of us, turn blue, and we're just going to sit there and say, 'We're drinking coffee and eating bagels, there's nothing we can do, we're trainees?'" and called the claims "all bogus lies and fabrication."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on July 18, 2010 2:50 PM

Comments [rss]

Love2Hate

At the end of the day, be it the FDNY, NYPD, FBI etc. It is all just a job with a big fat pension. Get off your idealistic bullshit that these guys do it for a anything other that the paycheck. It is just another paying job. They are not in it to save you just their jobs.

snickerdoodle

Love that bitchin' KARMA.

bashmentgirl

The EMT worker who was killed this weekend did not deserve to have his name marred by the media. If he had done half the things he was accused of doing, he would have been fired, not suspended, but fired. In reporting his death, the media should also apologize to him and set the record straight regarding the incident with the pregnant woman.

Kanger

I'm only commenting since ALL of you have no idea how Karma works:

The literal translation of the word "karma" from sanskrit is "action" or "deed". the "law of karma" is merely the law of "cause and effect" applied to the principle of enlightenment (evolution of intelligence). in fact, evolution is a great analogy, karma is a form of "intelligence-darwinism". the actual literal definition of the law of karma is:

"For every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according to whether or not its cause was skillful or unskillful." ("unskillful" implies the cause was motivated by samsaric delusion, "skillful" implies the cause was devoid of samsaric delusion.)

Rather than an "excuse", karma is the method by which we either escape samsara (leave the life-cycle of endless suffering and enter nirvana - "bliss freedom indivisible") or cause ourselves to sink deeper into it. therefore your karmic standing is by no means irreversible. You can live a delusional life full of evil acts and still find your way to achieving "liberating karma"... essentially "clearing" your bad karma.

People malign the definition of karma frequently. It is not "what goes around comes around" and it is not "an excuse for when bad things happen". it is the embracement of personal responsibility for your actions and therefore a damn good reason for self-improvement.

(fyi- i am using the buddhist definition of karma. hindus and jains have slightly different definitions.)

pretender

Kanger said: I'm only commenting since ALL of you have no idea how Karma works:

[cut blah blah blah]

fyi- i am using the buddhist definition of karma. hindus and jains have slightly different definitions.)

Gosh, get off your high elephant, man! Clearly, they're not using your definition of 'karma!'

jackrusso

why would anyone want to go to greenhouse anyway? that place sucks.

The Man Bat

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

wobbleSmith

sucks that anyone has to die in a incident like this. but for those of your defending jason green's actions at that au bon pain back in december, you're dicks. i don't care if he didn't have equipment. he needed to go that woman so she could see that help was there (when in fact it was coming), maybe help calm her. he needed to do something that indicated that he took the badge as his sweater as a serious responsibility to this city and it's citizens -- not a fucking job with a pension. so jason green, it really is terrible that you ate a bullet. it truly is. but otherwise, you can fuck off you callous, cold motherfucker.

Callie

Dear freddnyc and all others who took a valuable second out of their day to mock the intentional assassination of a fellow being...who are you to cast such a stone let alone leave your words in stone and left to haunt you till god forbig "karma: comes around to strike you back.Your words are ignorant, others plain disgusting. To commit your life and occupation to be an EMT essentially means taking a vow to help others. Look in the mirror, examine your own disposition; life is short and every split second misfortunes occur. As a dispatcher- this man did what he could. If you were in the face of a life or death situation- u would be surprised at how differently each person reacts. As a dispatcher- this man did what he was meant to do...that in which he did not- should not be judged from the perspective of a disrespectful computer nerd who clearly has never served mankind in the form of an EMT, a firemen, a marine,,,,etc. Speaking of "karma" with such an ignorant tone of sheer mockery- what would you call 9/11? Bottom line- everything happens for a reason- people face difficulties, imperfections, and hardships and eventually lose someone close to them. Thus, every second spent angry, upset or worse: logging onto something like this to sit back and laugh!?...are moments in which you are taking advantage of the gift of life and its every day pleasures that you will never get back. Think about it...hard.

wobbleSmith

Speaking of "karma" with such an ignorant tone of sheer mockery- what would you call 9/11?

you're hilarious. when is your next comedy show?

John L

I realize some of the commenters here are friends and coworkers of this guy but you're going to have to excuse us if we're not sympathetic to a person who was so unsympathetic to a dying pregnant woman. I'm not saying he got what he deserved, I'm just saying it is what it is.

Here's what the pregnant woman's co-workers said

"They had a callous disregard for that woman," one longtime co-worker said. "They didn't show an ounce of remorse. I couldn't believe it. It's like they felt as if they couldn't be bothered to help that woman."

Tarsheen Brown, 29, said, "I asked them for help and they just looked at me like I was stupid."

And this was their attitude after the incident"

"Smiling and laughing, Jason Green and Melisa Jackson reported to FDNY headquarters at the end of their 30-day suspension for abandoning Au Bon Pain worker Eutisha Rennix.

"I'm relieved I still have a job," said Green as he hugged a co-worker and playfully swatted another on the shoulder outside Metrotech in downtown Brooklyn."

Seems like they were still indifferent even after the pregnant woman's death.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/01/21/2010-01-21_emts_accused_of_ignoring_dying_pregnant_woman_eutisha_rennix_back_on_job_after_3.html#ixzz0u6YX0Vc5

And here's what her mother said:

"The woman's mom, Cynthia Rennix, said her daughter always carried asthma equipment with her and a quick-thinking EMT could have found it or given her lifesaving treatment." "They knew how serious this was," she said. "They should at least have looked."

Sounds reasonable to me.

I wasn't there but I tend to believe that if the EMTs would have at minimum tried to help the pregnant woman by trying to calm her down, laying her on the floor in the right position, checking her vital signs, anything! Had they made any attempt to save her life, most of the employees and witnesses wouldn't have accused them of being indifferent.

So I have to choose whether to believe there was a complicit conspiracy by the coworkers and the media to implicate and frame these two EMTs or they were in fact on break and didn't want to be bothered. I can't reasonably believe the first scenario.

Either way I'm not happy he died and I hope whoever did it gets caught but you have to wonder if the gun man felt the same indifference for his life as the witnesses say he displayed for the young pregnant girl dying.

m015094

I don't know Green or Rennix, nor do I work for either employer.

If this lady always carried her asthma medication, then she should would have gotten it out when she first started having trouble breathing, right? Trust me, people who suffer from asthma know when to get out their inhaler.

Beyond this, nothing these EMTs could do would have helped her other than call for an ambulance (which they did).

The disconnect comes from the general public's misconception of authority figures/health care workers. The Au Bon Pain employees see their coworker in trouble and two EMTs in uniform. They expect the EMTs to fix her, but the EMTs don't have any equipment because they're off-duty. They aren't God and they can't magically cure people. It's too bad the ambulance didn't arrive until 11 minutes after the call, otherwise things may have turned out different.

abrain

All I can say is fuck you and fuck you, to everyone who has made a nasty comment. This is a human being, yes what happen with the women is horrible, but nobody knows the true facts and if you believe the news you have a problem. Almost everything on the news is BS. I have personal seen how they will make a story out of nothing to sell a few newspapers!!!

Unless you where at the deli that day shut your fucking mouth or as you like to say "karma will come back and bite you!" As an EMT without equipment it is very hard to do anything other then what he and his partner did, that is call the dispatcher and have an ambulance dispatched.

I worked with Jason and he was a good man, and EMT. It is tragic to lose anybody.

No matter who is killed it is a tragic lose, even it it was you and your ignorant comments.

m015094

+1

SOF

Absolutely agreed.

SOF

Some of these comments are absolutely atrocious. None of the posters here who talk about "karma" know at all what they're talking about. This man was a human being, and he and his partner were cleared of wrongdoing. People become EMT's in order to help people and excuse me if the reactionary response of the oft ill-informed public is something that I despise.

Being an EMT is a dangerous and demanding job especially in NYC. I highly doubt the accounts that the two EMT's sat back and did nothing when they could have saved the pregnant woman; That is against the core of what it is to be an EMT... and to be one in the city you have to stick to that core. Also, there IS only so much people can do without equipment.