By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-828203.mp3
Dallas, TX – Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle has issued a personal apology, and put an officer on leave after a traffic stop outside a hospital emergency room. KERA's BJ Austin says the Chief calls the whole thing embarrassing and disappointing.
Last week, Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats was rushing his wife and other family members to Baylor Medical Center in Plano to the bedside of his dying mother-in-law. Dallas Police officer Robert Powell followed Moats' SUV to the hospital entrance, after Moats proceeded thru a red light a few blocks away. The dash board camera shows the Officer refusing to allow Moats to enter the hospital, threatening to arrest him, and taking a long time to write a ticket for running a red light. Chief David Kunkle says that never should have happened.
Kunkle: In the course and scope of everything we deal with in a year, this is more embarrassing and troublesome because it just seems to be so unreasonable considering the circumstance.
Officer Powell on the force three years is on leave pending a department investigation and possible discipline.