A Denver police officer failed to provide first aid to a teenage gunshot victim for more than 10 minutes last year while the 18-year-old bled onto the pavement and pleaded for help before he died, an internal investigation found.
The officer, Dewayne Rodgers, was fired Nov. 22 in connection with the Sept. 7, 2020, incident. Another officer, David Clough, arrived at the scene at the same time and also did not provide first aid, but Clough resigned before the disciplinary investigation finished.
The disciplinary letter explaining Rodgers’ dismissal — obtained by The Denver Post through a public records request — does not name the victim, but coroner reports list Jalonte Jones, 18, as the man who died in a shooting on Sept. 7, 2020.
It’s unknown whether Jones would’ve lived had Rodgers, a 16-year veteran of the force, given first aid. The letter does not state whether Jones died at the scene, but indicates he stopped breathing before paramedics arrived.
Mary Dulacki, the Denver Department of Public Safety’s chief deputy executive director, wrote in the disciplinary letter that it would be reasonable to assume Jones would’ve been alive when paramedics arrived had Rodgers acted.
