Two years ago, Pittsburgh native Mileek Grissom, 23, was shot and rushed to UPMC Mercy hospital.
After learning of the shooting, Grissom’s stepfather, the Rev. Earl Baldwin Jr., was the first of his family to arrive at the hospital, and even though doctors had not yet said so, Baldwin says he knew Grissom was already dead. So he put his head next to his stepson’s and cried. He wanted to pray over him and let the young man know that he was going to take care of his family.
But according to Baldwin, who had publicly spoken out about ending gun violence in Pittsburgh before the shooting, that wasn't possible because police pulled him off his stepson and then used a Taser on him. The family is now suing police regarding the alleged incident, which was captured on a video that has just been released.
"I needed to tell him his family was going to be OK. I was going to do everything I could to make sure they were OK," Baldwin told WPXI.
Police claim that they pulled Baldwin off Grissom because he was impeding doctors from working on him, but the video appears to show that after Baldwin is shot with the Taser, police push the medical bed that Grissom is on out of the way in order to deal with Baldwin. The video doesn't appear to show any doctors or nurses caring for Grissom.
"Watch the video," the Baldwins' family attorney, Joel Sansone, told the news station. "Not only was the child not being treated. The child was dead."
According to Sansone, police also stopped Grissom's mother, Tori Baldwin, at the entrance of the hospital and refused to let her see her son, WPXI reports.
"I wanted to rub his head. I wanted to kiss him. I know he was calling for his mom," Tori Baldwin told the news station.
According to the news station, Pittsburgh police didn't respond to requests for comments, but the hospital issued a statement, saying in part, "This was a stressful situation and a tragic loss for this family. However, the allegations about the circumstances are inaccurate."
Read more at WPXI.