KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. –Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango responded to questions and criticisms regarding how the case of John Lucas, the man who was run over and killed by a Kanawha County ambulance last month, is being handled.
Two speakers addressed the commission during Tuesday night’s meeting about the incident that occurred in the early morning hours of April 16 in the Elkview area. Initial accounts of the incident suggested that Lucas, 45, was near the EMS station holding a knife.
Last week, Scott Summers, the attorney representing the Lucas family, stated that this was not true. He said he met with Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Debra Rusnak and reviewed a 35-minute video that showed no evidence that Lucas posed a threat to the two EMS workers.
One speaker said the EMS crew had several options that night other than running over Lucas.
“They could have rolled up their windows, they could have locked the doors, they could have called for the police, they could have even used a piece of equipment obviously installed in their vehicle called reverse,” he said.
Surveillance video of the area shows Lucas running in front of the ambulance. The ambulance appears to stop and then move forward, striking Lucas. Lucas was dragged for two miles on U.S. 119.
Salango said an investigation remains ongoing and that officials cannot release additional information because it could potentially compromise the investigation.
“As the family explained, there’s an investigation going on, there’s certain information that you, and I and others can’t see yet, but there is an investigation, as the family has explained on social media, there were over 400 pieces of evidence gathered, there’s an active investigation, and whatever happens to it, you and I can’t decide that,” he said.
The speaker also criticized Kanawha County Sheriff Joe Crawford and called for his impeachment over the investigation.
Salango said the investigation needs to be allowed to run its course before any calls for impeachment are made.
“Maybe there’s an indictment, maybe there’s not, but that always is decided typically at this point in time, it would be decided by a grand jury, and the grand jury can do what they choose to do, but we don’t know about that process, that too is secret, so to call for the impeachment of somebody who is in an active investigation seems a bit premature to me,” he said.
Last week, protesters gathered outside the Kanawha County Courthouse and Public Safety Building holding “Justice for John” signs and calling for the two workers to be charged in connection with Lucas’s death.