While the crew was not among the first called to the supermarket where six people were killed and 13 others wounded, a memo from Ekstrum's supervisor said his actions caused "confusion and delay" during the emergency.
Ekstrum's team, which is specially trained to handle large medical emergencies, was dispatched to assist 90 minutes after the Jan. 8 shooting.
The 28-year veteran of the Tucson Fire Department retired two days later while his supervisors were still considering how to discipline him, according to the Star, which obtained the memos about the incident through a public records request.
Capt. Ben Williams wrote in a report that when Ekstrum first said he would not go on the call, "he mentioned something about 'political bantering' and he did not want to be part of it."
I thought they had psychological tests to screen out people like this. When someone gets shot, the last thing on anyone's mind should be what political party they belong to. Imagine if one of the Buffalo firefighters didn't feel like responding to the woman struck by the car on Seneca and Duerstein on Thursday? They had to use air bags to pump up the pickup truck to get it off of her. I hope I never get shot or struck by a car in Buffalo. With my views, more than one responder might fail to "respond"...
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