Man wrongfully convicted of murder dies while waiting 46 minutes for ambulance
A Detroit man who spent a large portion of his life behind bars after being wrongfully convicted of murder died after an ambulance took 46 minutes to arrive.
Dwight Love passed away on Jan. 9 after collapsing in front of his daughter Letrisica Day’s home.
A neighbor helped her carry her father, Dwight Love, inside. They laid him on the couch and dialed 911. That was 11:16 a.m. A dispatcher told her help was on the way.
“I don’t know what to think. I’m hysterical; I’m scared. I called family friends; I called my mom. Like I said, she instructed me to feel for a heartbeat and a pulse, and I did those things. And at the time I felt one,” says Day.
But her father was slipping away and EMS was nowhere to be found. Her phone logs show Day called 911 three more times. An emergency crew finally showed up at 12:02 p.m. – 46 minutes later.
By the time paramedics arrived, her father was gone. Interim Detroit Fire Commissioner Jonathon Jackson told WJBK-TV “We are grieving right with them. We want to do better.” The city says it had 19 units running, all of them tied up at the time.
When the ambulance arrived, they determined that an autopsy wasn’t needed, so Love’s family waited three hours for the funeral home to pick up his body.
In 1981, Love was wrongly convicted of first-degree murder. He was picked out of a flawed photo lineup, and spent almost 20 years behind bars. The conviction was overturned and he was eventually released in 2001.
His daughter can’t help but feel the city and the system failed her 54-year-old father twice.
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