‘Needed to Get Out of Here’: Black Man Shot in the Back By Police Left Behind Dying So Ambulance Could Take Cop with ‘Mild Anxiety Attack’ to ER

A Black man who was shot in the back by police in Bridgeport, Connecticut, during a foot pursuit had to wait an extra 10 minutes for an ambulance to arrive after an officer who was having an anxiety attack took the first one, according to a newly released report from the state inspector general.

Dyshan Best, 39, was shot as he fled from officers who were responding to a witness report that he had brandished a gun during a brawl involving 30 people in a parking lot following a funeral on March 31, 2025.

He was sitting in the passenger seat of a Chevy Tahoe when Officer Erin Perrotta, 24, approached and asked Best to get out so she could pat him down. Visible on her body camera video was a bottle of Remy Martin cognac and a vape pen in his left hand, and a cell phone in his right. 

Best complied and got out of the SUV, but then took off running. During the chase, which went through a gas station parking lot and ended in a junkyard, Perrotta and Officer Yoon Heo, 28, both tried to tase him. Video from Heo’s bodycam released by the Inspector General shows that Best lost his shoes and dropped the bottle, phone and vape pen as he fled.

When he reached the junkyard, Best ran between some cars while extending his right arm backward. In his right hand was a pistol whose barrel was aimed at Heo, who saw it and fired two shots at Best. One bullet tore through his lower back and lacerated part of his liver and kidney, injuries that later proved fatal.

Issued after a year-long investigation, the Inspector General’s report found that the shooting was justified because Best pointed a loaded 9mm semi-automatic handgun backward and Heo, just a few feet behind him at that point, reasonably feared for his life and safety.

But the report also raised disturbing questions about how police handled the medical treatment of Best after he was shot.

Footage from police body cameras shows that while Best was lying wounded and bleeding on the pavement, he was able to speak to officers for several minutes after he was shot. He told them he was struggling to breathe.

Meanwhile, Officer Perrotta was having “a mild panic attack,” the report said. Sgt. Erica Spike described Perrotta at the time as “visibly hysterical (crying and breathing rapidly) and had blood all over her uniform.”

The first ambulance to arrive at the scene arrived at 6:02 p.m., about 14 minutes after the shooting. According to reports from the ambulance company, the emergency medics had received a call about “Stab/Gunshot/Penetrating Trauma.” But when they arrived, Bridgeport police officers told them, “Hurry up and take our partner,” and did not give them information about Best.

Perotta got in the ambulance, but refused any treatment from first responders, and told them, “I am fine. I just needed to get out of here.” Her ambulance arrived at Bridgeport Hospital at 6:08 p.m., the report says.

The next ambulance did not arrive on scene until 6:12 p.m., 10 minutes after the one that transported Perrotta. Best, whose back wound had been packed with gauze by Heo and treated by fire department EMTs in the interim, arrived at the hospital at 6:22 p.m., according to hospital records. Though he was unresponsive, doctors were able to find a pulse, and Best was brought to the operating room for emergency surgery, during which he died at 7:41 p.m.

The report by Inspector General Eliot Prescott did not say whether the delay in waiting for another ambulance contributed to Best’s death. But his family and many members of the Bridgeport community believe it did.

Tatiana Barrett, one of Best’s nieces, told The Associated Press that the family believes he could have survived if he had been taken to the hospital in the first ambulance.

“Honestly, it’s heartbreaking hearing all these details,” she said. “We were looking for justice. In our community, we don’t know what justice looks like. We want justice for my uncle. We truly believe he was murdered.”

In a statement from family attorney Darnell Crosland, Best’s family said they were “disappointed” with the report’s findings.

“It is clear that Black lives in Bridgeport are not valued, and the way in which the family has been treated is unacceptable,” the family said, adding, “We will continue on our journey to justice … and will not stop fighting until police stop killing Black men and women in the City of Bridgeport.”

Jazmarie Melendez, a former Bridgeport city council member whose brother Jayson Negron was also killed by Bridgeport police in 2017, told CT Mirror that the decision to place an officer who had no physical injuries in the ambulance before Best, who “was left bleeding on the pavement” in critical condition, was a major failure on the part of the police department.

“In my opinion, that’s complete medical neglect,” she said. “What that shows is that the system of policing cares about protecting themselves, not the community. And when they inflict harm, their issue is not rooted in ensuring that medical attention is given. Instead, it’s about getting themselves out of that situation.”

A spokesperson for Bridgeport police, Shawnna White, declined to comment when asked by AP about the ambulance issue. She said in an email that the police department’s Internal Affairs Division would conduct its own investigation.

‘Needed to Get Out of Here’: Black Man Shot in the Back By Police Left Behind Dying So Ambulance Could Take Cop with ‘Mild Anxiety Attack’ to ER