Dunwoody wants to terminate contract with ambulance service after shocking video

DUNWOODY, Ga. - Shocking video from a Dunwoody Police officer's body cam shows what appears to be an EMT beating a patient in the back of an ambulance.  Now the city council wants changes. 

"It was shocking, it was stunning, it's something you'd think would be in another city, another part of the world," said City Councilman Terry Nall.

A Dunwoody police report says the video shows an EMT striking a teenager as he was restrained in the back of the ambulance. His hands were cuffed behind his back.  The EMT says the young man spit on her.  

Dunwoody Police arrested Deannah Williams.  The ambulance company, AMR, says she no longer works there. AMR released a statement to FOX 5 News, it says "The safety of patients in our care is of the utmost importance to us and we have hundreds of employees in the area who care for hundreds of patients in Dekalb County each day".

Dunwoody City Councilman Terry Nall says this isn't the first problem with AMR.  He says there have been complaints about patient care and response times have increased since the city has been tracking them in 2016. He says in the past week there was a call with a response time close to an hour. 

"We had a pedestrian struck on Tilly Mill Road May 16, we had a 58 minute response time from AMR," said Nall.

Nall wants the state EMS agency to give Dunwoody it's own EMS certificate so they can get out of the current contract between Dekalb County and AMR.  Monday night the city council unanimously agreed to approach the state.