Turley Volunteer Firefighter May Face Charges After Trying To Help Friend In Crash

A volunteer firefighter could face charges for rushing to a Sperry car crash to help out. He said he's stumped why he'd be punished for pitching in.

The Sperry Police Chief says, while the firefighter's intent was good, this case is about following the law.

"I arrived on that scene as a Good Samaritan and was going to help," said Greg Johns.

Now, he said he's being punished for trying to save a life.

"It's just bull crap," Johns said.

A close friend of his was in a wreck on April 29, at 96th Street North and Peoria, not far from Johns' house. He said he raced to the scene when he found out, and saw his friend, Cody, in the white car.

"My friend was laying there, unconscious," Johns said.

He said no one was helping get Cody out of the car, so he jumped in to help.

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"I felt for a pulse and I did not feel a pulse, at all. That's what really hit me the hardest," Johns said. "I just focused on whatever I had to do to get him out of the car.

Johns was off-duty, but was wearing his Turley Fire t-shirt.

Sperry Police Chief Mike Smith was at the scene before Johns and said Johns told him he was dispatched there as a Turley firefighter. Smith also said Johns claimed to be an Emergency Medical Responder.

"They're dealing with someone's life, and if they're saying they know how to do it, then that leads other responders to make decisions based on what they say they can do," Smith said.

Smith says he's been a paramedic for more than 10 years and a volunteer firefighter for 14 years. He says he was responding as medical personnel, not as a police officer.  

Smith said he didn't believe Johns, and told him to go away numerous times, but Johns kept interfering.

"He got in and was touching the patient, trying get him on the spine board and not being trained to do that," Smith said. "It was just hindering everything that we're doing."

Johns said he never talked to Chief Smith, and if he did, he doesn't remember because he had tunnel vision.

Smith said, had Johns come upon the crash before anyone else, he'd be protected by Good Samaritan laws, but he arrived afterward.

"Once the trained professionals get there, they need to take a step back and let the trained professionals do it," Smith said.

All three people involved in the crash survived.

Smith said he will soon request arrest warrants for Greg Johns, for interfering with an officer in the line of duty, practicing medicine without a license and impersonating an EMT.