In an incident caught on video late Monday night, a Portland Police officer is seen tackling a volunteer medic named Tyler Cox and repeatedly punching him while he was on the ground.
Cox was arrested for assaulting a police officer and taken into a riot van. “The officer looked at me and he said, ‘that’ll teach you’.”
Cox says he went more than two hours without medical attention before paramedics evaluated him.
“They noted that I was lethargic. And, they noted that I was having trouble walking straight. They told the police officers that they couldn’t clear me to be arrested, or to be taken to jail without a head CT, or taken to the hospital at the least. The police actually got angry with them about that.” says Cox.
Police took Cox to the emergency room to get checked out for a head injury.
“They took me to OSHU. And the funny thing about that is that that’s where I work. I’m an ICU nurse at OHSU.” Cox says.
A registered nurse in the Neuro Intensive Care Unit, Cox was appalled by the way his injuries were downplayed by police and OHSU. He suspects it was because he was at a protest.
“They just kind of were treating me like they didn’t respect people who were the part of the protest. Like they were dismissive. They didn’t like to ask me if I needed anything. Like, I was never offered water [or] offered anything for pain” Cox said.
Cox refused to give police officers his name and so they didn’t know he worked at OHSU. An officer stayed in the room with him until a physician arrived.
“The police officers stepped out of the room for just a brief moment, just outside the door. And I told the physician like, Hey, I work here, I’m a nurse here. And he liked that, shifted everything” Cox said.
“And I’m like, that’s such bullshit.”
“Like, you guys need to give this kind of care to everybody. Not like you shouldn’t treat me better because I’m a nurse. You should treat people who you don’t like or who you disagree with better,” Cox said.
Cox’s discharge paperwork notes that the reason for the visit was a head injury. Cox was diagnosed with “Hematoma of scalp, close head injury initial encounter.”
After being released from OHSU, Cox was brought back to jail.
In the aftermath of the video posted online, the Mayor and Police chief have both responded and an investigation has been started by the Independent Police Review and Internal Affairs. But that night Cox says he was asked by a sergeant about the incident.
“Before I was released, a police Sergeant showed up and said that he was investigating the use of force by the arresting officer,” Cox said.
The sergeant asked him if he remembered how many times he got hit. “And I’m like, I don’t know, like two to three, maybe more, I’m not sure.”
Cox says then the sergeant said, “Well, you punched him.”
Cox was shocked. “He was like, ’yeah, well, you punched him. So you assaulted the officer.’ And I was like, ’I punched him, like, what are you talking about?’ Um, and he was like, ’yeah, it’s all on video. We got all the evidence’.”
Cox is charged with felony assault of a police officer, misdemeanor resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and interfering with a peace officer.
Calls for comment to the Portland Police and OHSU were not immediately returned.
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