A 17-year-old teen from Chicago was presumed dead after a shooting early Monday. A paramedic had even covered him with a sheet — but he was still alive and breathing. The Chicago Fire Department is now investigating for potentially "grossly negligent" behavior.
Paramedics eventually performed chest compressions on the teen after removing the sheet, but he'd been laying on the ground with the sheet over him, seen breathing heavily, for an undetermined amount of time.
This man was shot at 4:30 this morning in Chicago and they had his body covered up as if he was dead. Paramedics didn’t even try to save him until someone pointed out that he was still breathing smh.. https://t.co/7RDaZUn7PR
Langford said Carey was shot in the head and "in very bad shape" and was the last of the victims to be transported to the trauma center at a local hospital.
A woman in her twenties who's not yet been identified was pronounced dead at the scene. Four other victims with gunshot wounds were rushed to the hospital and were eventually treated and released.
Online, people are outraged and baffled over the incident.
Chicago PD and paramedics... SLOPPPY
are you fucking kidding me https://t.co/sEYHEFEojl
"My god. This country is in shambles," comedian Chelsea Handler tweeted in response.
@Marcus_OTF @MichaelSkolnik My god. This country is in shambles.
Carey did not survive and died 20 hours later in the hospital on full life support, medical examiners confirmed to the Chicago Tribune.
Langford said his department is actively looking at phone calls, radio traffic, "who took what assignments," and "all the data we can gather," to determine how Carey could have been mistakenly presumed dead.
"We have to figure out if someone did something that was grossly negligent and if it was a mistake," he told BuzzFeed News. "We don't know yet who did what."
He said they have not heard from Carey's family.