WASHINGTON — The story of a deputy injured on a specialized response team is highlighting the dangerous work the squad does on a daily basis.
The Prince George’s County sheriff’s deputy is recovering after a man in medical distress stabbed him in the face and broke his jaw.
Cpl. Nick Romanchik was bleeding profusely, but his decade of training and experience kicked in, and he treated his own stab wounds after interacting with the man in medical distress on Monday morning in College Park, Maryland.
“It really speaks to his professionalism, his ability to maintain a calm demeanor in the midst of a chaotic circumstance. Yet he was able to be cool and collected,” said Prince George’s Sheriff’s Department Col. Darrin Palmer of the deputy’s response.
Romanchick is a skilled member of the Emergency Petition Service squad, formed last fall. Members are trained in a similar way to a SWAT team to start, but Palmer said this sub-squad of the sheriff’s tactical team only responds to petitions — situations in which someone is in mental, medical or emotional distress and are in danger of hurting themselves or someone else.
Palmer said they’re considered the most dangerous calls.
“Someone who is erratic, potentially violent, potentially hostile. All of this is what they have to anticipate when somebody is having a medical emergency as well,” Palmer said. “The deputies have all undergone communications de-escalation skills and are qualified. This is not a fly-by-night operation; this is a very calculating and well-trained team in possession of great communication skills, so they understand time is on our side,” he said.
The EPS squad is also different from a tactical team in that deputies do not respond wearing tactical gear. That’s part of the effort to approach the person in distress in a noncombative manner, Palmer said. The squad works in teams of three, so in a case like the one that presented itself on Monday, there is built-in backup if the situation rapidly changes.
In its 321-year history, the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Department has only lost two deputies in the line of duty, both on the same emergency petition call.
“This is a dangerous call, because you don’t know whether the person has a weapon, but [in] an EPS call, you already know you’re going to try to assist someone who has been reported in emotional and mental distress,” said department spokeswoman Sharon Taylor.
