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I'm not sure if this belongs on the LODD thread but I'll put it there until a moderator moves it.
I got called in early to work yesterday. Here's what happened.
I work nights at a Steel Mill near New Orleans. At any time there are 2 Security personel on duty, an unarmed SO and a SO cross trained as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).
Around 12:25pm the day shift SO exited the guard house to do a routine patrol of the plant. The Site supervisor, an EMT/SO , had control of the desk and front gate duties.
The SO, Ed Locklar, 54 years old of LaPlace, Louisiana got in the brown Buick car used for patrol as he had done hundreds of times. At 12:30 the EMT/SO at the front gate got a call on the security radio channel. The patrol car was in a drainage ditch near our water treatment plant and the driver, SO Locklar, was unconscious and didn't appear to be breathing. The EMT/SO jumped in the medical van and rushed to the scene leaving the guard shack in the care of the plants' scale house operator who called 911 to get Rescue in route. The EMT/SO, with help from about 5 plant employees pulled SO Locklar from the car, put him on a spine board from the medical van and began CPR. With employees trained in CPR doing compressions the EMT/SO used his personal cell phone to call 911 from the scene and tell them "CPR in Progress" which ensured a large commitment of EMS resources. The medical bags were fetched from the van, SO Locklar was ventilated using the Bag Valve Mask and supplemental O2. The AED was attached but the defibrillator was unable to find a shockable rhythm so manual CPR continued. Within 10 minutes 2 ALS ambulances and several fire department vehicles and police cars were on scene in the plant. Paramedics intubated and pumped cardiac drugs into an IV. They got a pulse back but could not get SO Locklar to breath on his own. He was transported to the local hospital ER. The Ambulance left the plant at 12:50pm. Total of about 15 minutes from the time the first call of the car going in the ditch. I go the phone call about 2:30 pm and got dressed and headed to the plant. I got there shortly after 4pm. My usual night shift SO partner, had gotten there about an hour earlier. Basically my partner and I, the night shift, were taking over about 2-3 hours early. At about 5pm the EMT/SO who had worked on SO Locklar was headed to the hospital to retrieve our spineboard and get a status update. All we knew was that he was in critical condition and on a ventilator. He returned about 6pm with the bad news. SO Locklar had died at about 5:30pm.
SO Locklar, known by many as Captain Ed, had worked at the steel mill for several years, including the years of a union strike when security had to deal with extraordinary crowd situations. He stayed on the job as several guard services won and lost the contracts for the plant. Each company getting the contract hired SO Locklar at the request of the plant officials based on his past performance. We may be contract Security/medical but Captian Ed was as close to In House as you could get. The day before Hurricane Katrina hit Capt Ed reported for work. He didn't go home until 5 days later, sleeping in the medical van or the building shared by the guard shack and scale house.
Eds son, Steven, was at work at the plant about 50 yards away from where he drove off into the ditch. Steven could see the ambulances from where he was working but didn't know until he had been taken to the hospital that it was his father they were there for.
Personally I didn't like Ed Locklar. He and I never hit it off and early this year I found he had made a unfounded complaint on me. I rarely worked with him but when we did get scheduled together we did our jobs and got along as well as two coworkers could when neither particular cared for the other.
Still, I don't take away for Capt Ed that he was a good plant security officer. He was once supervisor of security until our company won the contract and it's policy of placing the senior EMT in charge of the regular officers knocked him out of the supervisor slot.
Regardless of how I felt personally, our company and our client have lost a good officer who served at the same post for many years and was almost as much of a fixture as the flag pole in front of the building.
RIP SO Edward Locklar.
I got called in early to work yesterday. Here's what happened.
I work nights at a Steel Mill near New Orleans. At any time there are 2 Security personel on duty, an unarmed SO and a SO cross trained as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).
Around 12:25pm the day shift SO exited the guard house to do a routine patrol of the plant. The Site supervisor, an EMT/SO , had control of the desk and front gate duties.
The SO, Ed Locklar, 54 years old of LaPlace, Louisiana got in the brown Buick car used for patrol as he had done hundreds of times. At 12:30 the EMT/SO at the front gate got a call on the security radio channel. The patrol car was in a drainage ditch near our water treatment plant and the driver, SO Locklar, was unconscious and didn't appear to be breathing. The EMT/SO jumped in the medical van and rushed to the scene leaving the guard shack in the care of the plants' scale house operator who called 911 to get Rescue in route. The EMT/SO, with help from about 5 plant employees pulled SO Locklar from the car, put him on a spine board from the medical van and began CPR. With employees trained in CPR doing compressions the EMT/SO used his personal cell phone to call 911 from the scene and tell them "CPR in Progress" which ensured a large commitment of EMS resources. The medical bags were fetched from the van, SO Locklar was ventilated using the Bag Valve Mask and supplemental O2. The AED was attached but the defibrillator was unable to find a shockable rhythm so manual CPR continued. Within 10 minutes 2 ALS ambulances and several fire department vehicles and police cars were on scene in the plant. Paramedics intubated and pumped cardiac drugs into an IV. They got a pulse back but could not get SO Locklar to breath on his own. He was transported to the local hospital ER. The Ambulance left the plant at 12:50pm. Total of about 15 minutes from the time the first call of the car going in the ditch. I go the phone call about 2:30 pm and got dressed and headed to the plant. I got there shortly after 4pm. My usual night shift SO partner, had gotten there about an hour earlier. Basically my partner and I, the night shift, were taking over about 2-3 hours early. At about 5pm the EMT/SO who had worked on SO Locklar was headed to the hospital to retrieve our spineboard and get a status update. All we knew was that he was in critical condition and on a ventilator. He returned about 6pm with the bad news. SO Locklar had died at about 5:30pm.
SO Locklar, known by many as Captain Ed, had worked at the steel mill for several years, including the years of a union strike when security had to deal with extraordinary crowd situations. He stayed on the job as several guard services won and lost the contracts for the plant. Each company getting the contract hired SO Locklar at the request of the plant officials based on his past performance. We may be contract Security/medical but Captian Ed was as close to In House as you could get. The day before Hurricane Katrina hit Capt Ed reported for work. He didn't go home until 5 days later, sleeping in the medical van or the building shared by the guard shack and scale house.
Eds son, Steven, was at work at the plant about 50 yards away from where he drove off into the ditch. Steven could see the ambulances from where he was working but didn't know until he had been taken to the hospital that it was his father they were there for.
Personally I didn't like Ed Locklar. He and I never hit it off and early this year I found he had made a unfounded complaint on me. I rarely worked with him but when we did get scheduled together we did our jobs and got along as well as two coworkers could when neither particular cared for the other.
Still, I don't take away for Capt Ed that he was a good plant security officer. He was once supervisor of security until our company won the contract and it's policy of placing the senior EMT in charge of the regular officers knocked him out of the supervisor slot.
Regardless of how I felt personally, our company and our client have lost a good officer who served at the same post for many years and was almost as much of a fixture as the flag pole in front of the building.
RIP SO Edward Locklar.
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