WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Two families targeted by a North Carolina hospital volunteer’s expletive-laced, racially tinged tirade said they were are pursuing justice but had not yet taken legal action against the hospital.
The families of Isaiah Baskins and Katie Thomas are represented by Justin Bamberg, an Orangeburg, South Carolina attorney. He is also representing the family of Walter Scott, a black North Charleston, South Carolina, man who was shot and killed by a white city police officer. The officer now faces state and federal charges.
“We are here to pursue justice,” Bamberg said during a news conference on June 8 in Winston-Salem, noting that Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center apologized to the families and fired the volunteer, whose rant was captured on a cellphone and widely circulated on YouTube. “But it should have never gotten to that point in the first place. … It’s inexcusable, and there’s no reason that it should be happening in 2016.”
Bamberg, who is also a state representative in South Carolina, said no legal action has been taken so far. He also said the families do need to be compensated, and that they hope the volunteeris convicted of simple assault charges. He said there also needs to be an examination of how the hospital screens volunteers.
In response to comments at the news conference, a spokesman for Wake Forest Baptist referred to its statement on April 15 in which it issued an apology and announced that the volunteer had been fired.
There was no immediate response to a voice message left at a phone number listed for Donna Lorraine Bridger, the former volunteer charged.
According to Bamberg, Baskins and Thomas were at Wake Forest Baptist on April 14. Baskins’ 2-week-old daughter was at the hospital for a follow-up examination after undergoing two heart surgeries. Thomas was there because one of her four sons was having blood work done. Thomas and Baskins were talking to each other in the hospital’s family center when the volunteer approached them and asked if they were together.
