“Don’t put my name in it!” Disgraced EMT Melisa Jackson, accused of ignoring a dying, pregnant coffee-shop worker, was more interested in remaining anonymous than getting aid when she made a halfhearted call to a dispatcher to merely report a woman with “difficulty breathing,” The Post has learned.
The shocking failure by Jackson and Jason Green – her boyfriend and co-worker – to help stricken 25-year-old Eutisha Rennix during their coffee break on Dec. 9, has infuriated Brooklyn prosecutors and raised the duo’s chance of facing even more serious charges, sources said. “I got a job,” Jackson, 23, said in a laid-back manner to a male dispatcher, according to a source who has heard a tape of the conversation. “Au Bon Pain, yeah.” After verifying the shop’s address, the dispatcher seemed to recognize Jackson’s voice and said, “Ohhhh, Melisa,” according to the source. “Don’t put my name in it!” Jackson shot back. The dispatcher replied, “I’m not,” the source said. Jackson gave him her shield number – 0816 – and, referring to Rennix, said, “Female, pregnant,” before adding in a blas way, “I don’t know how old she is.”
Rennix’s co-workers at the Au Bon Pain in Downtown Brooklyn’s Metrotech Center said Jackson and Green had ordered bagels when employee Tareen Brown first approached to say Rennix had collapsed in a back room and insist “you have to help.” “They said, ‘We’re on our break, so there’s nothing we can do,’ ” Brown recalled.
Another worker, David Waters, said Jackson waited three minutes before calling the EMS dispatch office where she worked – several floors above the shop. Shop workers said Jackson and Green then waited another five minutes for their bagel, and repeatedly rebuffed further pleas to check on Rennix. Shortly after the EMTs walked out, two firefighters entered and jumped into action, with one trying to keep Rennix still as she convulsed and the other calling 911, according to a shop manager.
Prosecutors plan on exhuming Rennix’s body for an autopsy, sources said. Rennix’s family, including mom Cynthia, sister Marva and twin brother Eudane, had already indicated they wanted one. If it suggests Rennix might have been saved if Jackson and Green, 32, had immediately gone to her aid, prosecutors will try to charge both with reckless manslaughter – a crime that carries up to 15 years in prison.
Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland.
JEMS.com Previous Coverage:
