Two employees of a Florida nursing home have been arrested in connection with an alleged assault. The 23-year-old woman and 19-year-old woman were taken into custody by deputies from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office on March 14. They both face two counts of battery. The two women have been suspended while the incident is being investigated, but they have not been fired. The elderly man who deputies believe was assaulted by the women did not suffer any injuries.
Executive director calls law enforcement
PCSO deputies were dispatched to the St. Petersburg nursing home after being alerted by the facility’s executive director. The executive director called law enforcement after watching one of the facility’s residents being whipped with a lanyard and thrown to the floor on footage recorded by a surveillance camera. The executive director watched recording because he found the explanation provided by two of his employees unconvincing and suspected nursing home abuse and neglect. The two women are said to have told him that an elderly male resident had assaulted an elderly female resident.
Thrown to the floor
The responding deputies arrested the two women after watching the recording and conducting interviews. According to media reports, it showed an elderly man being whipped by the two women with a lanyard as he was pushing a wheelchair-bound female resident down a corridor. At one point, one of the women grabbed the elderly man and threw him to the ground. Deputies say the two women laughed throughout the assault.
Clamping down on abuse and neglect
It is refreshing to see law enforcement and nursing home executives taking abuse and neglect seriously in this case despite the lack of injuries. The elderly are frail and vulnerable, and assaults like this one could easily cause them serious harm. When minor assaults go unpunished, more serious incidents become more likely.
