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"Doctor Dies In Police Custody"
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| itsTrueSonic |
i read this in the morning paper.
story here
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Doctor dies in Kenner police custody
She stopped to aid bicyclist hit by car
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
By Matt Scallan and Michelle Hunter
Kenner bureau
A Kenner doctor who stopped to aid a boy who had been hit by a car died in police custody late Monday after she allegedly shoved police officers investigating the accident, but Kenner police said they believe they had no role in the woman's death.
Jameela Yasmeen Arshad, 51, of 133 Chateau St. Michel Drive, was in the back of a Kenner police car with her hands cuffed behind her back when she showed signs of distress, police spokesman Capt. Steve Caraway said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
An ambulance took Arshad to Kenner Regional Medical Center shortly after 10 p.m. She was pronounced dead at the hospital, Caraway said.
The cause of death was not known Tuesday evening. An autopsy is scheduled for today at 9 a.m., coroner's office investigator M.A. Goldman said.
Arshad's husband, Dr. Kaleem Arshad, asked for a full investigation of the incident in a statement issued to WWL-TV.
"She was being a good Samaritan, helping another human being," he said in the statement.
Mary Howell, an attorney representing Arshad's family, said they are very upset by her death.
"It's a tragedy any way you look at it," she said.
Arshad had no medical history that would explain the events described by Kenner police, Howell said. She and the family are searching for witnesses to the incident.
"We're asking anyone who saw any part of this to please come forward so we can try to get some questions answered," she said.
Bicyclist struck
Caraway said Arshad was acting aggressively during the incident, in which a motorist struck a 15-year-old boy on a bicycle at the intersection of West Esplanade Avenue and Williams Boulevard, one of the city's busiest intersections.
"She got out of her car and started screaming at the semiconscious boy that he had almost made her hit him," Caraway said.
The boy, who Caraway said was in good condition at East Jefferson General Hospital, was determined to be at fault in the accident as he rode in front of oncoming eastbound traffic. Caraway would not identify the boy, but witnesses told police he was knocked 20 feet through the air.
An employee of a nearby business, who declined to give her name, said she saw part of the initial accident.
"I didn't see (the driver) hit him, but I saw him in the air. He fell on the other car," she said, referring to the car behind the motorist who hit the boy.
An off-duty Jefferson Parish firefighter/EMT stopped to help the boy, and told police that Arshad pulled over, screamed at him to get out of the way and began shoving him.
"When he asked her to show identification showing that she was a doctor, she said she didn't have to do so. And given the way she was acting, he said he wouldn't have turned the scene over to her even if she had," Caraway said.
Argued with officers
When police showed up, Arshad got into a similar argument, and shoved at least one officer, Caraway said.
He said police at the scene were unsure about whether Arshad was a doctor.
"She kept saying that this was her scene, but no law enforcement agency would have turned it over to someone under these circumstances," Caraway said. "She had no medical bag, no stethoscope, and she wouldn't show them identification."
Howell said Arshad was a neurologist. State licensing information shows that Arshad was licensed for medicine and surgery in 1988 and is currently in good standing.
Caraway said that after she shoved an officer, Arshad was arrested, handcuffed and placed in the back seat of the police car. Soon afterward, Arshad appeared to have some sort of a seizure and was taken to the hospital.
Witnesses said police did not have to use force to restrain Arshad, Caraway said.
"There was no pepper spray or anything like that," Caraway said. "A few minutes before, she was talking to the officer as they walked to the car."
Incident being investigated
However, a worker in the area, who declined to be identified, said police forced Arshad to the ground.
"She was talking to the police, and they were trying to push her back," the worker said. "I know they had words exchanged. You could tell by the way she was doing her hands."
But soon afterward, the witness said, she saw police take her out of the car and lay her on the ground, where paramedics tried to treat her, she said.
"They worked on the lady, I'd say, a good little while," possibly 10 minutes, before taking her away in an ambulance, she said.
Caraway said the officer involved in the arrest will be given administrative duties until the investigation is complete.
Unfinished gardening
No one answered the door at Arshad's home in the Chateau Estates subdivision Tuesday afternoon.
One car was parked in the cobblestone driveway of the two-story, brick house. The front lawn of freshly planted, bright green rye grass was neatly manicured. Several trays of petunias and other flowers were left in the driveway, waiting to be planted. A pair of rubber gardening clogs lay by the front door, and a wheelbarrow and shovel were in the flower bed.
Gardening was Arshad's daily passion, according to neighbor Teresea Guzzetta, who said she once called it her therapy.
"She was such a nice person," Guzzetta said. "I can't believe it. I'm just so sick about it."
Arshad and Kaleem Arshad, a psychiatrist, have lived in the home since 1991. The couple have one son, who recently graduated from St. Martin's Episcopal School in Metairie, Guzzetta said.
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this story is a real head scratcher .. we got 2 different sides to the story. i don't know who to believe. all i know is that this story is missing a lot details and some is hiding something...
:nervous: |
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| KilldaDJ |
thats so saddening..
possible conspiracy? |
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| Mebot |
so she stopped to help a kid who got hit by a car.. then when the police showed up she started arguing with them and shoved them and was consequently arrested?
that makes no sense... |
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| itsTrueSonic |
| quote: | Originally posted by Mebot
so she stopped to help a kid who got hit by a car.. then when the police showed up she started arguing with them and shoved them and was consequently arrested?
that makes no sense... |
yes .. i am about as more confused when i read the story with the guy who died on new year's eve outside the Razoo's club here (well everything got straightened out and i now fully understand what the hell happened there).. i am afraid the police brutality is back and running at full force again here, like we had 10 years ago .. oh boy ....:nervous: :rolleyes: |
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