Dallas paramedic fired in 2021 after caught assaulting homeless man reinstated but demoted
A Dallas paramedic who was fired after he was caught on video punching and kicking a homeless man in 2019 was rehired by Dallas Fire-Rescue, according to a report from Star-Telegram partner WFAA-TV.
Brad Cox, who had worked for Dallas Fire-Rescue for 19 years, was reinstated by an administrative law judge’s ruling but was demoted, according to the report.
He was fired in October 2021, but he will not receive any lost wages for the time he was terminated.
Cox was a driver and engineer with Dallas Fire-Rescue, but is now has the lower rank of fire rescue officer, according to WFAA.
Dallas Fire Fighters Association President Jim McDade told WFAA that he did not agree with terminating Cox to begin with. McDade said standard operating procedures allow officers to defend themselves.
“The media took a snippet of this incident and didn’t look at the totality of the situation,” McDade said. “The question it raised amongst the department was, if you’re put in a situation where you are attacked, what do you do to defend yourself?”
According to police body-camera video of the incident, Cox told police that he was trying to defend himself from the homeless man, Kyle Vess, who he said attacked him.
On Aug. 2, 2019, Cox and other firefighters responded to the frontage road of Interstate 30 near Lone Star Drive, where police were told Vess had started several small fires.
Cox told police he was stomping out the flames when Vess allegedly attacked him, and he responded by kicking and punching Vess back, according to the video.
Body-camera footage obtained by WFAA shows Cox telling Vess to get up. Vess was moving toward Cox and Cox is seen in the video kicking him in the head and punching him.
Vess was then shocked with a taser and was arrested.
Police public integrity documents obtained by WFAA said Vess had “a black eye to his right eye, bloody nose, multiple fractures to his face and a swollen right ankle.”
He was charged with assaulting a public servant, but the charges were later dropped.
The Dallas Police Department investigated the incident, but Cox was not charged with anything.
A grand jury also declined to indict Cox on any charges, but Vess’ family sued Cox and the city of Dallas, alleging Vess had a mental illness and had suffered a traumatic brain injury before the incident, according to court documents. That lawsuit is still pending.
Cox, along with another firefighter, previously was accused of harassing and laughing at another homeless man, Hirschell Wayne Fletcher Jr., who had been beaten and robbed outside of a Dallas soup kitchen on Dec. 30, 2016, the Star-Telegram previously reported.
A federal lawsuit filed by Fletcher’s children said that paramedics Kyle Clark and Cox assumed Fletcher was drunk and began to harass him as he sat on the sidewalk. They continuously mocked Fletcher for about 15 to 20 minutes, the lawsuit said.
Fletcher was taken by authorities to jail instead of a hospital for treatment and died from a brain bleed caused by his injuries.
The paramedics did not face criminal charges in connection with Fletcher’s death but were charged with falsifying records by claiming that the Dallas Police Department hauled Fletcher to jail before their arrival.
Cox pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months of probation.
