Deadline Detroit | Detroit First Responders Failed to Prevent Fatal Stabbing of Woman in Dwelling, Lawsuit Alleges

Romaira Washington was murdered in 2019 (Photo: GoFundMe)

Nearly 2 1/2 years after her daughter Romaira Washington was fatally stabbed 17 times, Leslie Washington still feels deep sorrow — and anger.

She wonders why six strong men — four Detroit firefighters and two emergency medical technicians — came to treat her daughter’s boyfriend for a heart attack at his upper flat, but stood by and refused to intervene while the boyfriend’s son choked and eventually stabbed Romaira, 39, a mother of five.

And she’s baffled that the city’s first responders, who are not armed, were simply following department protocal when they called police, but refused to physically confront the son inside the home at on W. Arizona Street, around 7 Mile and Woodward.

“How could you not do anything,” Leslie Washington asked during an interview Saturday on 910 AM radio’s “Detroit In Black and White” show. “I don’t know a man who would just sit around and watch. That was cowardly to me that you would stand and let that happen like that.”

Washington has filed a lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court accusing the firefighters and EMT workers of failing to intervene in the fatal stabbing of her daughter while they awaited the arrival of police. The suit names as defendants the fire and police departments and the city of Detroit. The boyfriend, 50, was pronounced dead at the scene from the heart attack.

“The Defendants failed to adequately address the emergency,” alleges the lawsuit, which was filed in September. “These acts of negligence and professional practice of firefighters and emergency medical technicians were the proximate legal cause of death.”

Washington is asking for unspecified monetary damages to help care for her daughter’s children, ages 12 to 21, and hopes the suit forces a change in policy so first responders can help in life-and-death circumstances, like that of her daugther’s. She said she doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else.

The city is asking for the case to be dismissed, claiming it has governmental immunity, which protects municipalities and workers from being sued while doing their jobs. The city has long considered its first-responder policy about not engaging in physical confrontations during runs as necessary for worker safety.

Charles Raimi, Detroit’s deputy corporation counsel, said Tuesday he considers the legal merits of the suit frivilous, and the city will vigorously defend against it.

On Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019, the first responders arrived at the home around 9:30 pm to treat the heart attack victim. While there, the man’s 26-year-old son, Darius Calhoun, 5′ 11″ and 320 pounds, started a commotion and confronted Romaira Washington.

Darius Calhoun (DOC photo)

The son “was screaming and punching the walls,” wrote one of the EMTs in a department report. “As the son was screaming I called for a police unit to help control the family, specifically the son.”

Shortly after, while waiting for police, the EMT asked his partner to find out when they were expected to arrive.

“My partner and another (firefighter) went to investigate and that’s when he said he could see the son choking the female.” Police eventually arrived and the first responders, the EMT wrote, began “assessing the female. There was a very large pool of blood…My partner then called a time of death.”

Detroit attorney Vanessa Moss, one of the attorneys for Washington, said there are conflicting reports as to when police arrived. Whatever the case, neither the first responders nor police prevented the daughter from being stabbed repeatedly, or the killer from fleeing.

Calhoun fled to Wisconsin, where he was arrested in St. Croix County the following month after experiencing a medical emergency. Authorities discovered the outstanding warrant for murder, and he’s now serving a 25-50-year sentence in the Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia.

“Darius Calhoun is criminally responsible for Romaria Washington’s death and (the) Detroit Fire Department., Detroit EMS, Detroit Police Department and Mayor Mike Duggan are his accomplices,” said attorney Moss, a co-host on the 910 AM show.

“This could only happen in Detroit, a predominately African American city. If Miss Washington was a blonde, (white) woman, four firefighters and two EMTs would not have stood by and watched a cold-blooded killer choke and stab a woman 17 times .”

So far, no trial date has been set.