Questions Emerge About Why Shot Detroit Officer Was Taken To Suburbs Instead Of Henry Ford Hospital

(WWJ) Grief spread across metro Detroit earlier this week with news a police officer was shot in the forehead during a call to a domestic disturbance. His condition is still very critical.

Then this happened: There were words between Detroit's police Chief James Craig and the city's fire commissioner over whether the injured officer was taken to the nearest and best hospital for his condition.

WWJ legal analyst Charlie Langton explained that Craig protested that the officer could have been transported to two other hospitals that are closer to the scene of the crime, cutting down on the crucial time between injury and treatment. He was taken from the city to Beaumont Hospital in suburban Dearborn.

Craig blames the outside contractor ambulance, Rapid Response EMS, for the choice to keep driving.

"So we have this outside contractor ambulance that takes our officer to a facility, gunshot would to the head, a level two facility, a level one facility -- Henry Ford -- was closer, and they specialize in what -- neurosurgery," Craig told Langton.

The police union president also weighed in earlier telling FOX 2 bluntly "The fact is there were other hospitals closer that he should have been taken to."

On the other side, Fire Commissioner Eric Jones said the ambulance driver made it to the hospital within 10 minutes, which despite the distance in miles was closer in drive time than the other two hospitals.

Oakwood Beaumont Hospital was 7.3 miles away, while Sinai Grace, another Level Two hospital, was 5.1 miles from the scene and Henry Ford Hospital, an esteemed Level One trauma center -- the highest level a hospital can achieve -- was 4.8 miles away.

"We want to take them to the very best hospital," Diaz told FOX 2. "And I'm not saying Oakwood Beaumont isn't a great hospital but when I have Detroit Receiving less than a half mile further away and Henry Ford, another Trauma One center that was only four miles away opposed to seven, he should have gone there."