Handcuffed and shackled, he died after getting a shot of ketamine

[Demovictory9]

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By the time the paramedics got there, Jamie Britt was on his stomach, his hands cuffed behind his back, his legs shackled. Four Mount Pleasant cops had him pinned to the ground.

“We’re going to ketamine him,’’ one paramedic announced just as he arrived.

Within minutes of getting a shot of the powerful tranquilizer, Britt, 50, was effectively dead — though it would be 16 long, agonizing days and nights before his wife decided to take her husband off a ventilator. He was pronounced dead at 3:28 p.m. on Oct. 16.


Watching this play out on the police videos months later is a horror show. It started with a guy with a simple flat tire and ended in tragedy. The Charleston County Coroner has ruled it a homicide, and what happened at the entrance of Snee Farm on that hot Monday evening in September should raise alarms about when and how ketamine is used to subdue suspects.

Ketamine’s use by paramedics has more than doubled in South Carolina since it was first authorized three years ago, and nowhere is it used more than in Charleston County.

“This is wrong,” Britt, handcuffed hand to foot, pleads on the tape.

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Twenty-seven minutes into the video, Britt is well restrained and calmer by the time the paramedics arrive. One of them, holding up a syringe, walks out of the ambulance and gives Britt a shot of ketamine. Only afterward does he ask: “Mr. Britt, hey, hey. Are you allergic to anything? Do you take any medications?”

Woozily, Britt says he takes Lisinopril for high blood pressure. Then he goes silent, never to speak again.

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Across South Carolina, paramedics used ketamine almost 2,000 times in the last three years, DHEC reports. Charleston, the state’s third-largest county, is by far the leader: 458 people were given injections over three years, about 1 in 4 of all given in the state. Greenville, the largest county, reported 279; Richland County, the second-largest, only 17, the data show.


“It’s for everybody’s safety,” the paramedic responds. But Britt’s three words — “this is wrong” — were among the last he would ever speak.d-fdd0cfc34c-174354037

https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/commentary/bailey-handcuffed-and-shackled-he-died-after-getting-a-shot/article_bf30b3a8-5a2c-11ea-8016-e30b4054f145.html?utm_source=The%20Marshall%20Project%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=fdd0cfc34c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_03_04_12_49&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5e02cdad9d-fdd0cfc34c-174354037

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Link to the article, please?

[Demovictory9]

2. here

https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/commentary/bailey-handcuffed-and-shackled-he-died-after-getting-a-shot/article_bf30b3a8-5a2c-11ea-8016-e30b4054f145.html?utm_source=The%20Marshall%20Project%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=fdd0cfc34c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_03_04_12_49&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5e02cdad9d-fdd0cfc34c-174354037

[blue neen]

3. Holy cow.

This is really frightening. Ketamine definitely can have some very severe side effects and should not be used as a tranquilizer!!!

[Haggis for Breakfast]

13. Ketamine is a HORSE tranquiizer.

WHEN the FUCK did they start using it on people ?????

[Lars39]

4. WTF

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

5. Someone ordered the shot. That someone (and probably others) needs to go to prison. n/t

[Coventina]

6. KETAMINE!?!?!?! That is some serious shit! Why are they giving it to humans!?!?!?

That's the stuff they use on species like gorillas and elephants.

This country has gone mad!!!!!!!!!

[OhioChick]

7. Ketamine is regularly used in the US,

Last edited Thu Mar 5, 2020, 10:03 PM - Edit history (1)

for many pain management conditions such as CRPS/RSDS, as well as others.
Every U.S. hospital uses ketamine a daily basis, even for depression.

Ketamine is standard of care in U.S. Emergency Departments for conscious sedation/short procedures. It is loved by staff because it does not suppress respiratory drive in appropriate doses.

[2naSalit]

9. +1

[csziggy]

8. The paramedic administered a powerful drug BEFORE asking his drug history?

THAT is the criminal part. No medication should be administered without checking on previous drugs and and possible interactions.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. There was an investigation into this practice a couple years ago in Minneapolis. There was even

some indication that county EMTs felt pressured to administer ketamine as part of a study.

Also, FTP.

[JDC]

11. WTF!?

This is insane

[uponit7771]

12. Soooooooooooo, he was murdered by the idiot paramedic who didn't ask proper questions