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WEBVTT TODAY, WE ARE TRACKING CHANCES FOR RAIN AND SNOW. WE BEGIN TONIGHT IN GREENSBORO WHERE CITY COUNCILWOMAN SHARON HIGHTOWER IS CALLING FOR AN INVESTIGATION OVER DRUG USE AT BASSNECTAR’S NEW YEAR’S EVE CONCERT AT THE GREENSBORO COLISEUM. TRIAGE WAS SET UP FOR OVERDOSES. KENNY: A GREENSBORO OFFICER TELLS WXII 12 NEWS, THE CITY GOT A HEADS-UP FROM A POLICE DEPARTMENT IN VIRGINIA, ABOUT THE TROUBLES THOSE OFFICER FACED FOLLOWING A BASSNECTAR CONCERT THERE. AN ANONYMOUS EMT WHO WORKED THE EVENT CLAIMS 98% OF THE 200 PATIENTS IN TRIAGE ROOMS AT THE COLISEUM THAT NIGHT WERE TREATED FOR OVERDOSES. BUT THE GREENSBORO COLIUSE DISPUTES THAT NUMBER. WE WILL TALK MORE ABOUT THAT IN JUST A MOMENT. COUNCILWOMAN HIGHTOWER BROUGHT HER CONCERNS TO TONIGHT’S CITY COUNCIL MEETING. WE ARE ALSO ALSO HEARING EXCLUSIVELY FROM GREENSBORO’S POLICE CHIEF, FOR THE FIRST TIME. TALITHA: STEVE KING’’S GOT IT ALL FOR US. HES LIVE IN GREENSBORO TONIGHT. A LOT TO COVER. REPORTER: COUNCILMEMBER SHARON HIGHTOWER DID NOT PUBLICLY SAY THIS, BUT SHE TOLD ME SHE DID ASK THE CITY MANAGER TO LAUNCH AN INVESTIGATION INTO WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED AT THE CONCERT. SHE SAYS SHE’S CALLING FOR THIS BECAUSE OF THE DISCREPENCIES IN THE NUMBERS BY BOTH AN EMT, WHO SHE ALSO SPOKE TO, WHO SAID -- SHE ALSO SPOKE TO, AND PARADOCS’ NUMBERS THAT SAY 108 PEOPLE WERE TREATE THE EMT SAYS NEARLY 200 PEOPLE OVERDOSED. COUNCILMEMBER HIGHTOWER SAYS THIS CONCERT PUT A DARK CLOUD OVER THE CITY, BECAUSE IT APPEARED LIKE THE CITY AND COLLISEUM CONDONED WHAT HAPPENED AND EXPECTED DRUG USE, JUDGING BY THE FACT THAT THERE WAS A MEDICAL TRIAGE UNIT READY TO GO. IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT PARADOCS, THE MEDICAL PROVIDER, WAS CONTRACTED BY THE DJ BASSNECTAR, NOT THE CITY. >> WE RECOGNIZED THERE WERE THINGS THAT WENT WRONG THERE. WE ARE WANTING TO MAKE SURE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND IT’S NOT ANYTHING WE AS A CITY SUPPORT. WE SUPPORT PEOPLE BEING HEALT, FREE FROM DRUGS, ENJOYING A CONCERT, JUST YOUR EVERYDAY WAY. REPORTER COUNCILMEMBER HIGHTOWER SAYS SOME OF THE PROCEEDS THE COLISEUM RECEIVED SHOULD GO TO DRUG TREATMENT CENTERS IN GREENSBORO. TALITHA: YOU ALSO TALKED TO THE POLICE CHIEF. WHAT DID HE SAY? REPORTER HE HAD A FEW THINGS TO SAY. HE SAYS HE BELIEVES THE NUMBERS PARADOCS PROVIDED ARE CORRECT. HE DOES NOT BELIEVE 200 PEOPLE OVERDOSED. HE ALSO SAYS HE IS NOT SURE IF THE DEATH ATTRIBUTED TO THE CONCERT IS INDEED SOMEBODY WHO WAS AT THE CONCERT. HE ALSO TALKED ABOUT WHY EXACTLY NO ARRESTS WERE MADE THAT NIGHT. >> MANPOWER CONSTRAINTS ARE ONE. THIS IS AN INDIVIDUAL OR INDIVIDUAL USE, OFFICERS HAVE A LOT OF OPPORTUNITIES TO HANDLE IT DIFFERENT WAYS. THIS EVENING THERE WERE A LOT OF MEDICAL CALLS AND WE WERE ASSISTING AT A HIGH LEVEL HELPING THE PARAMEDICS. THE OFFICERS MADE TH DECISION THEY DID NOT SEE ANYTHING THAT ROSE TO A LEVEL TO TAKE THEM OUT OF SERVICE. REPORTER GOING BACK TO COUNCILMEMBER HIGHTOWER, SHE SAYS NO MATTER WHAT THE INVESTIGATION BRINGS UP, SHE HOPES THE CITY LEARNS FROM THIS AND THE COLISEUM LEARNS FROM WHATEVER HAPPENED MOVING FORWARD. LIVE IN GREENSBORO, STEVE KING, WXII 12 NEWS. KENN A SPOKESPERSON FOR THE GREENSBORO COLISEUM SAYS, THIS IS THE THIRD TIME BASSNECTAR HAS PERFORMED THERE, AND THE ESTIMATE OF 200 OVERDOSES IS INACCURATE AND HIGHLY EXAGGERATED. ANDREW BROWN SAYS THE COLISEUM JUST RECEIVED THE FINAL REPO FROM PARADOCS, THE GROUP CONTRACTED TO PROVIDED MEDICAL SERVICES FOR THE NEW YEAR’S EVE SHOW. THE REPORT SAYS 108 PEOPLE OUT OF THE 22,300 IN ATTENDANCE RECEIVED SOME TYPE OF MEDICAL ATTENTION. THAT’S 0.5% OF THE CROWD. OF THAT GROUP, FIVE PEOPLE HAD TO BE HOSPITALIZED. THE OTHER 103 WERE TREATED ON SITE AND RELEASE BROWN GOES ON TO SAY COLISEUM TICKET SCANNING RECORDS INDICATE THAT THE MAN WHO DIED AT A LOCAL HOTEL AFTER THE SHOW, DID NOT ATTEND THE CONCERT. POLICE HAVE TOLD OUR DAVONTE MCKENITH THAT EVIDENCE FOU INSIDE THE HOTEL ROOM LINKED THE MAN TO THE BASSNECTAR SHOW. BROWN ADDS THERE WERE NO ARRESTS INSIDE THE COLISEUM THAT NIGHT . AND THAT 99.95% OF THE PATRONS HAD A GREAT CONCERT EXPERI

Advertisement Coliseum staff disputes claims of nearly 200 overdoses during New Year's Eve concert; EMT stands firm Greensboro city councilwoman Sharon Hightower is calling for an investigation into the reported overdoses that an emergency medical technician said happened at a largely-attended New Year's Eve concert at the Greensboro Coliseum. Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Greensboro city councilwoman Sharon Hightower is calling for an investigation into the reported overdoses that an emergency medical technician said happened at a largely-attended New Year's Eve concert at the Greensboro Coliseum. Hightower says she is disgusted and aggravated at the consequences and aftermath of a recent concert featuring Bassnectar.The event was the third-largest concert in venue history. Hightower covers District 1 for the council -- the same district the coliseum is in. She says she didn't know about the event until after a doctor emailed the City Council and the mayor.The Greensboro City Council is expected to discuss those concerns during Tuesday's meeting. According to a emergency medical technician who worked the event inside the triage rooms set up inside the concert's venue, nearly 200 people were treated for overdoses from drugs, including mushrooms, cocaine, molly, LSD and ectasy. Paradocs, which provides medical assistance for large events, was involved in the concert's preplanning efforts.Late Tuesday afternoon, an official with the Greensboro Coliseum emailed WXII 12, disputing the medic's claim that nearly 200 people overdosed at the concert.Andrew Brown, public relations manager, said only 108 people were treated for a variety of medical services at the concert.The EMT said he stands by the number of patients he observed at the concert, and is not certain if the report the Coliseum received from Paradocs is truthful. Brown also stated that five people required transport to area hospitals for further treatment and were subsequently released.Previously, Guilford County Emergency Medical Services told WXII 12 that six patients had to be taken to a hospital. Additionally, a Greensboro police officer, who worked the event attended by 22,000 people, said a 43-year-old man was found dead at a hotel near the Coliseum hours after the concert because of an apparent overdose. The unidentified officer said evidence inside Tam Phan's room linked him to being at the concert.Brown stated that Coliseum ticket scanning records indicate Phan did not attend the concert and disputes that claim as well.Police Chief Wayne Scott, in an exclusive interview with WXII 12 News, said that it's unclear at this time if Phan attended the concert.“All those questions are still under investigation. Our initial response in the early morning hours we were told by individuals with the victim that they had been at the concert. We are investigating those stories. We’re trying to figure out exactly what happened all the way back several hours because obviously a death of this type is concerning to us and we want to know not only when they ingested, where they ingested it, where they got the product and those types of things so it’s still under investigation. We are taking into account the information the Coliseum has provided to us as part of that investigation so we can’t really say at this point,” said Chief Scott.Chief Scott says the medical response numbers that Paradocs provided are likely accurate, while the EMT's numbers are likely inaccurate.“Those numbers parallel the numbers we were given by Guilford County EMS and that’s who we look to for any event to give us more definitive numbers. I would make the assumption that they worked directly with Paradocs to obtain them so it would make sense that they are pretty much the same numbers,” Chief Scott said.“We track our numbers through the Guilford County EMS folks who were on scene. They work closely with Paradocs. Their numbers are significantly lower than that as well as the fact that they are giving the number of 108 folks treated. Not everyone was an overdose. There are indications that overdoses occurred, some percentage of that, but I think the numbers are probably more accurate coming from the healthcare providers who were there to track it."The Police Chief also talked about why no arrests were made at the concert.“Any time we are in large venues, whether it be a concert at the Coliseum or a large festival downtown, we look at several factors before we make an arrest. Our manpower constraints are one. If this is an individual for individual use, the officers have a lot of opportunities to handle that in different ways. This particular evening, there were a lot of medical calls and we were assisting at a pretty high level helping the folks at Paradocs. So the officers for the most part made the decision that they didn’t see anything that rose to the level to take them out of service. It was more important for us to be there to provide that extra service and extra set of hands to help make sure that we render aid. And any time that we encounter someone who has overdosed or who has fell victim to a drug, we nine times out of ten will not charge for that. Our primary concern is ‘let’s get that individual the healthcare they need’ and then we try on the backside to try to figure out if there are other services provided and that kind of thing so this really wasn’t different than any other event, whether it be a folk festival downtown. We spend a lot of time working through, ‘how do we respond’ and what’s the best way for us to do it with a limited amount of resources,” said Chief Scott.He also confirmed for WXII 12 News that people did overdose on drugs at the concert, although he did not specify how many. He says everyone who was transported to the hospital on New Year's Eve have since been released.“There were individuals who were treated for overdose. I can also tell you that the County Medical Director was on scene and made that determination in conjunction with other physicians who were on scene as to who went to the hospital with Guilford County EMS and who was treated there on scene. The Greensboro Police Department is one part of a multi-faceted public safety team there. So it was the police department, it was our local EMS, it was our fire department, and we pre-discussed who would handle which type of calls. The Greensboro Police Department takes a very small role in that but we have the manpower so I spoke directly with the medical director prior to the event, made sure that we had adequate resources based off the intelligence we gathered from other events similar to it in the past. SO it’s a fairly regimented way in which the doctors apply those standards and they elected that five people needed to be transported and that’s what happened,” Chief Scott said.“This event was like some others. It was a very large concert, third largest in the history of the Greensboro Coliseum, that in itself says a lot. But we deal with very large venues that have exceptional problems of all types all the time, whether it be traffic, people overheating, heat exhaustion. In this particular case, we had a lot of different medical issues appear. I believe the police department, EMS and all our public safety departments work really hard to try to come up with the best plan for the best outcome and obviously that’s our goal. We want everybody to go home at the end of the night."In addition, Chief Scott says it's likely most of the people who needed assistance “The security protocol that were put in place by the Greensboro Coliseum and the entertainers themselves, not the police department, was a fairly extensive search of the individuals coming in in the hopes that no one would bring anything illegal into the actual venue so you can figure from that that hopefully they were somewhat successful so those folks who were experiencing it probably had done it earlier,” said Chief Scott.“Different venues bring different types of issues that we deal with in law enforcement. It’s just what it is and this one in particular, we did our research and I think you can research online and you can find that across the country there are a lot of different perspectives of those fans and the way they want to come and there are different ways to address it. I think here the city did a pretty good job overall in that our plan came together and we got most everyone home safely."Greensboro District 1 Council Member Sharon Hightower says she asked the city manager to launch an investigation into exactly what happened at the concert, due to the discrepancies in the number of overdoses which occurred. Here are her comments during the council member comment period of the meeting: “This concert that was at the concert on New Year’s Eve has been in the news. We’ve talked about today. We talked about it yesterday about the amount of drugs that were found and the overdoses that occurred and the number varied anywhere from five to eight to 200. It’s a staggering number and what happened there was unfortunate. We’ve got to find a way to move beyond it. We can’t ignore it, however. And I know Michelle thinks it was a good idea that they had medical people on sight but I think having them on sight kind of really more spurred them to do more activity than would have been normal. Any life lost is a tragic loss and somebody did die after the concert, not at the concert. But a medical professional was very concerned about what he saw when he went to work and we’ve talked to him and I’ve talked to him and I’ve talked to him and addressed it and know that it wasn’t anything intentional that the city wanted to have happen but it happened and I hope going forward we will use a little bit better judgement about those kinds of things. Especially making sure staff really researches some of those issues at concerts and things that occur. I’m not oblivious to the fact that all drug activity probably happens, I mean it probably happens at a gospel concert, which is really unfortunate. But I don’t think it happens to that level. This has really set a negative tone. I would like to really see some of what you all did with Gun Stoppers be applied here. I just read an article in the paper today about things they’re doing and in seeing something on the news about some drug rehab facilities that are often are looking for funding and maybe we can assist a couple of those agencies out in our community to get the word out and get the awareness out because it is a crisis and I don’t want anybody to think that we certainly are proponents of anything illegal happening but it was very concerning. It was very concerning to me. I was very appalled by the fact that I didn’t even know about it up front ahead of time. I don’t get into those kinds of concerts and things but I kind of got hit by it, if you will, so I hope we will look at that and I hope that there are maybe some ways we can spread some positive information out in the community by utilizing some of those funds. It unfortunately was the third largest venue at the Coliseum but it has been clouded in negativity because of this association so I hope we can look and find a way to get that done as the Coliseum director to work with a couple of agencies to be able to do that."Council Member Hightower told WXII 12 News why she is calling for this investigation.“I asked the city manager that we really need to look into the real basis of the concert and what happened. There’s a lot of despairing comments out there. There are a lot of things that people are saying that it’s 200 people who were seen and had overdoses and it was eight people who were seen or it was five. And one of the reasons why I’m concerned about that is because we actually set up a medical services unit to address those types of behaviors if you will, that people might encounter doing illicit drugs. And it’s very concerning to me that we would have to do that because we expected a level of those kinds of overdoses and some other sicknesses and ills that occurred that night. Not just like your typical medical emergencies, you expect people sometimes to get overheated and there might be some passing out or maybe a heart attack or two comes along or something like that and you always want to have medical personnel on hand to address those issues but to specifically say you, or the DJ contracted, let me be clear because the Coliseum did not contract. It was brought to us through the DJ who had the concert but even so it was a coordinated effort with police and EMS and this Paradocs to make sure those measures were in place for this type of event. And it’s sad to say that even today we are still talking about it because there are some things that occurred that were unclear and I hope that they will take what I’m saying very seriously, not only about investigating but taking some of the proceeds from the concert and maybe donating to some of our non-profits who actually work in this field of helping those who have some kind of issue with illicit drugs,” said Council Member Hightower.She also says that the Coliseum should donate some of its proceeds from that concert to drug treatment programs in Greensboro which are in need of funding."That concert created an environment of that kind of behavior and it just says to people that we recognize that there were some things that we recognized that there are some things that went wrong there and we are wanting to make sure people understand it’s not anything we as a city support. We want people to be healthy and free from drugs and enjoying a concert just in your average, normal everyday way,” Council Member Hightower said.“I think that’s the proper thing to do."I think if we do that from this concert we can put this to rest, if you will.“I just think it’s time for us, I hate to say, move on. I think there’s been a lot of lessons learned from this particular venue that occurred on New Year’s Eve and I think moving forward we will now do better. And if you recall tonight I did ask the City Manager to talk to the Coliseum about donating some of the proceeds.“We’ve all kind of had a consensus because I’ve talked to other members of council and staff. It’s not anything we purposely set out to do to have a concert where these types of behaviors occurred but it’s certainly a lesson learned."Paradocs has not responded to WXII 12's request for a comment. Representatives for Bassnectar, who contracted Paradocs as medical providers for the event, also have not responded to WXII 12 News' request for a comment.