A few winters ago, I was called by a tenant to do a wellness check on a male who was found outside on the coldest day of the year in a light sweater and jeans with no gloves, hat, or jacket. When I arrived, I found him sitting in dirty clothes on a stone bench outside the lobby with a half empty bottle of wine next to him. The fun part of winter had passed, and it was now grey, icy, and frigid. The sun was shining making the scene quite bright, but it wasn't providing any heat.

He was a large male in his early 20s who was staring off into space as I approached, he didn't respond kindly when I introduced myself and I could tell he was quite intoxicated by the way he was slurring his words and seemed oblivious to the temperature. I told him that drinking on the property wasn't permitted and that he would have to leave BUT that I was concerned about his condition and asked him where he came from and was planning to go. He repeatedly told me not to worry about him and that he would be fine, but I was on the fence about calling him an ambulance.

He thwarted my display of compassion by deciding to leave so I moved to observe him instead. My intention was to gauge his ability to walk and then see if there was any need to provide any additional resources. He packed his bottle of wine into his bag, stood up, and began trekking towards the street. He was a bit wobbly but otherwise walking well.

As he approached the stairs leading down to the street level, I advised him to hold onto the handrail which was a suggestion he unfortunately didn't heed and as he bumped and flailed down the stairs, he continuously picked up speed until he reached the bottom. The sudden transition to flat ground meant that his body was still falling and his legs, try as they might, were unable to balance the shift in weight.

He ultimately sprawled into the street landing directly on his face. The wine bottle in his backpack, seeing its opportunity, betrayed him as it dislodged from the pack and thumped him on the back of the head before escaping into the street. as I winced, he laid still long enough for me to wonder if he would get up.

Immediately after the fall several heads peeked around the corner from the bottom of the stairs up at me as some bystanders were taking a cigarette break at the bottom on the public sidewalk. And at that moment I realized that they had just "witnessed" a presumably homeless, underdressed, less fortunate, drunk man, thrown down a flight of stairs by a security guard.

This .... isn't good, I thought.

I approached him at the bottom of the stairs as the bystanders scattered and saw that he had broken his nose. I called my dispatch for an ambulance and tried to stop the bleeding while we waited for EMS. Due to the height of the fall, EMS elected to backboard him upon arrival adding to the spectacle and I could feel my ears burning as the onlookers whispered about wrongdoing.

Luckily for me, this encounter was caught on CCTV and I was in the clear. Hopefully he is doing better now and has some warmer clothes.