US police took dying Black man’s ambulance for themselves

Dyshan Best was shot and killed in March 2025 by police during a foot chase in Bridgeport, Connecticut, US. As he lay dying, officers insisted an ambulance sent for Best be used to transport a colleague having a “mild anxiety attack” to the local hospital.

Police claimed Best had been armed — but he was shot in the back as he tried to flee and posed no imminent danger. Family lawyer Darnell Crosland said that Best had been carrying a vape — one was recovered close to the shooting scene. None of Best’s prints or DNA was on the gun police claimed to have recovered from his body.

Best’s family has begun legal action after an official report revealed the “abomination of justice”. Appalling, but not surprising given the record of police contempt for the lives of Black citizens in the US (and UK). Crosland said on Friday 13 March that they are suing the city because police ignored their “duty to render aid”.

Best’s niece Tatiana Barrett said that the police had simply left her uncle to die:

I really, truly believe that they allowed my uncle to die on that street

Erin Perrotta, the officer who took Best’s ambulance, refused medical care in the ambulance. She told paramedics:

I am fine, I just needed to get out of here.

Best lay on the ground, dying of liver and kidney wounds, for another fourteen minutes. Perrotta is now on administrative leave — but on an “unrelated matter”, not in connection with Dyshan Best’s police murder.

Featured image via the Canary