The D.C. fire lieutenant at the center of a controversy involving a dying man outside near a fire station appeared before the department’s trial board Wednesday.
Kellene Davis, a 30-year-veteran D.C. fire lieutenant, has been on administrative leave with pay since shortly after the death of 77-year-old D.C. resident Medric Cecil Mills, who collapsed and later died after suffering a heart attack at the Brentwood Shopping Center directly across the street from D.C. Fire Department Engine 26 in northeast Washington.
An official report found that, despite repeated desperate attempts by family members to summon help from the fire station, no one there responded.
"I ran to the curb and I was like, 'Please can you help my father. Please, please, please,'" said his daughter, Maria Mills. "And I said, 'Are you just going to stand there and do nothing and let my dad die?'"
Mills' family said several people went across the street to Engine 26, pleading for help. But a rookie firefighter said he had to check with his lieutenant. When he returned, he said he had been told he could not respond.
Davis (pictured right) is facing six charges in the case: Neglect of duty, failure to give assistance, failure to command, making a false statement, PA system failure and no documentation.
The Fire Department's Trial Board, which consists of two Battalion Chiefs and two captains, heard evidence in a closed meeting Wednesday. The first four witnesses scheduled were the other four firefighters on duty atEngine 26 the day Mills died.
The Trial Board will determine Davis' guilt or innocence and recommend a punishment if applicable.
"It is extremely painful to think that our dad could still be with us if he was given proper medical care. He was in clear medical distress ... but when an emergency happened at their doorstep, they did nothing," Medric Mills' son, Medric Mills III, said last month.
D.C. Fire & EMS said the other four firefighters on duty the day Mills died also are scheduled to face individual trial boards.
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