I came across this story today and it is one of the saddest things I have heard in a while. Ryan Moats is an NFL running back, but that is irrelevant to the story. That first link really covers the story well, so I suggest you just go read it there. You can also watch the video from the dashboard  camera in the police car, but I think reading the text summary is enough.

To make a long story short, Ryan Moats received a call that his mother in law was in the hospital and only expected to live for a few minutes. The family jumped in the car and sped to the hospital. Just before pulling into the parking lot, Moats failed to come to a complete stop at a red light, though he did slow down and make sure there was no traffic (and it was at night, so most likely he would have seen). He even appears to have his 4-way flashers on. A police officer pulls out and turns on his lights, but at this point Moats was cloase enough that he just pulls over and parks in the hospital parking lot. The police officer ignores his pleas to see his dying mother in law (though his wife does run into the hospital) and proceeds to lecture him for almost 15 minutes. At some point, hospital security and a nurse both come to confirm that his story is true and his mother in law has only seconds to live, but the officer is unmoved. By the time the officer lets them go, his mother in law has died.

Through it all, Moats was a real trooper. He is frustrated (obviously) but he doesn’t cause trouble, just begs and pleads for the officer to let him go. He never mentions that he is a football player or anything like that. I’m not sure I could have kept as calm under similar circumstances.

Much is being made of the fact that the officer pulled a gun, but I don’t blame him for that. If you pull someone over and then a bunch of people come spilling out of the car, as an officer I think you have a right to be nervous. It has also been questioned whether this was racially motivated. I honestly don’t think so. I think it was a simple case of an officer with no common sense and a power trip, being a complete and utter idiot. But one thing is for sure, it is tragic and I can’t imagine what it feels like to be Ryan Moats right there.  All that frustration and grief and anger. And he handled it like the ultimate stand up guy.

I think the police are handling it appropriately and, in particular, I thought these were some good comments from the Chief of Police and his assisstant respectively:

“At the point the officer was told that they were responding to a dying family member, that should have been his concern: to allow those people to get access to that family member.”

“When people are in distress, we should come to the rescue. We shouldn’t further their distress.”