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Albuquerque Firefighter Sued in Drive-By Tragedy

A teenage boy was shot in the chest at a party. As a friend tried to save him and called 911 for help, an Albuquerque firefighter hung up on her because she used a curse word, and the boy died, his parents say in a lawsuit against the firefighter.

ALBUQUERQUE (CN) — A teenage boy was shot in the chest at a party. As a friend tried to save him and called 911 for help, an Albuquerque firefighter hung up on her because she used a curse word, and the boy died, his parents say in a lawsuit against the firefighter.

Jaydon Chavez-Silver died at 17 after a drive-by shooting on June 26, 2015. As his friend Esperanza Quintero, also 17, tried to save him with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, she called 911, which connected her to medical dispatcher and Albuquerque firefighter Matthew Sanchez, Jaydon’s parents say in the June 26 lawsuit in Bernalillo County Court.

In an audio recording of Quintero’s 911 call, she alternates between answering Sanchez’s questions and encouraging Jaydon to “stay with me.”

When Sanchez asks Quintero a second time whether Jaydon is breathing, she replies: “He’s barely breathing. How many times do I have to fucking tell you?”

In response, Sanchez says: “OK, you know what ma’am? You could deal with it yourself. I’m not gonna deal with this, OK?”

Quintero says: “No, my friend is dying …” and is cut off in mid-sentence as Sanchez hangs up.

In the following weeks, Sanchez was placed on administrative leave, then resigned. In an interview with KOAT-7 News, Quintero said Sanchez “should find something else to do, because helping people isn't for him.”

Ronald Silver and Nicole Chavez, Jaydon’s parents, sued only Chavez, accusing him of medical negligence and wrongful death: the intentional abandonment of a patient while acting in the scope of his duties. They say that Sanchez’s hang-up cost their son “his last clear chance to be kept alive.”

They seek damages for medical negligence and wrongful death, and costs of suit.

They are represented by Paul Kennedy in Albuquerque.

Dominic Conyers, now 21, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and shooting at an occupied dwelling, according to Albuquerque news reports. He was sentenced in May this year to 12 years in prison followed by 5 years of probation.

Nicholas Gonzales-Villasenor, 16, pleaded guilty in July 2016 to shooting at a dwelling or occupied dwelling, causing great bodily harm, and conspiracy, and was sentenced as a juvenile to 1 year in the custody of the Children, Youth and Families Department.

Esias Madrid, 20, is charged with first-degree murder and is to go to trial in September. Police said Chavez-Silver was not the intended target of the drive-by shooting.

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