Officer Suspended for Not Helping Homeless Woman
PHILADELPHIA — A police officer was suspended without pay for failing to help a homeless woman who was literally freezing to death in December, police said.
Officer Raymond Ruczynski, 43, a 19-year veteran of the police force, was suspended last week for 10 days upon the recommendation of the Police Board of Inquiry, Police Capt. Richard DeLise said.
Nearly an hour after the officer reported to police headquarters on Dec. 16 that the woman was drunk and had refused assistance, Mary Dennis, 59, was found frozen to death on a bench at a city bus stop.
The temperature that day was 26 degrees with wind gusts up to 26 m.p.h.
Police dispatchers received at least eight calls from passers-by about the woman.
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