Seattle Officer Accused by Nurse of Refusing to Wear Mask in ER, Investigation Opened

A Seattle police officer is under investigation after a nurse accused him of repeatedly refusing to wear a mask while inside a hospital emergency room.

In a Twitter thread on Saturday, the nurse said an officer that she identified as Eric Whitehead had "blatantly refused" to put a mask on while in the hospital to obtain a statement from an assault patient. They added that several nurses had handed the officer masks to wear, but he threw them away.

"This officer came into a hotbed of an infectious disease pandemic, deliberately violated not only hospital policy but state mandated public heath actions and common human decency, and spoke to frontline workers like we were garbage. There was no accountability from his peers," the nurse wrote in one tweet.

After the tweets went viral, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) said an investigation is underway by the department's Office of Police Accountability (OPA).

"It has been brought to our attention through social media that an officer was seen not wearing a mask," the SPD said in a statement on Sunday. The statement didn't identify the officer in question.

"The behavior outlined in last night's post is unacceptable and not what we expect of our Department members."

The statement added that officers and civilian officers have previously been directed to follow mask guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the City of Seattle.

"We know the profound impacts that COVID has created for our community. We will hold our personnel accountable for actions that violate policy and the trust of the community we serve," the statement added.

The SPD and the nurse have been contacted for additional comment.

"I'm an ER Nurse in Seattle. Last night @SeattlePD officers came to the ER to obtain a statement from an assault patient. One officer, Eric Whitehead, blatantly refused to put a mask on while standing in a high-traffic hallway," the nurse wrote in the first of nine tweets about the incident.

Noting that several coronavirus patients were in nearby hospital rooms, the nurse continued: "Multiple nurses handed him masks. When I saw he threw them away I asked if there was a problem."

The nurse said the officer "put his hand in my face" and said: "Miss, I'm here to do my job and you interrupting me is keeping me from that. If you need to have a conversation about masks it can wait."

"I told him there is no conversation, I just need you to wear a mask. You're putting patients and staff at risk by refusing," the nurse said in another tweet.

"Whitehead ignored me point blank. I escalated to my Charge Nurse. He condescendingly refused her too. Nursing Supervisor got involved and he finally put on mask but stated he would be taking it off in the patient room."

The nurse said at least three other officers stood nearby. "Throughout all this, at least 3 other officers were standing right there. None of them thought to say 'Hey man maybe you should just put the mask on,'" the nurse wrote.

Noting that the emergency room had taken every precaution to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the nurse said the "audacity, arrogance [and] self-importance assumed by police is disgusting.

"I've spent 12hrs in layers of PPE several times a week for months. I have pressure sores on my face from my N95. I asked you to wear a paper mask for 30 minutes," the nurse said.

"I was met by this arrogant prick flexing his false authority in a way that disregarded all of that. His colleagues were complicit."

Referring to the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the nurse added: "If cops can't tell another to put on a mask, you think they'll tell each other to get a knee off his neck or don't shoot her in her sleep?"