Patient in Utah Nurse's Arrest Controversy Dies

A sad development in the Salt Lake City nurse arrest controversy: Bill Gray, the patient whose blood nurse Alex Wubbels refused to allow police to take without consent or a warrant, has died from the injuries he suffered in a July car crash. Gray, a reserve police officer with the force in Rigby, Idaho, and a full-time truck driver, suffered burns over 46% of his body when a suspect fleeing police near Logan, Utah, crashed into his truck, KIFI reports. He had been in the University of Utah burn unit since the crash and was unconscious when police requested a blood draw. He died Monday after a "long, hard fight," police said in a Facebook post.

"Bill truly was the best of mankind," the Facebook post said. He "was a big man, with a bigger heart. Everything about him was generous and kind." The fleeing suspect died at the scene of the July 26 crash. Salt Lake City police detective Jeff Payne and his supervisor, Lt. James Tracy, were suspended after an attorney released video of Payne violently arresting Wubbels for following hospital policy and refusing to draw Gray's blood. On Monday, the chief of Salt Lake City's police union accused the city's mayor and police chief of "unfairly and improperly" making "pariahs" of the officers, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. (An internal affairs report accuses the officers of showing "extremely poor judgment.")