Members of the Salt Lake City Police Department’s internal affairs unit had about 300 new emails and 150 voicemails when they arrived at the office Friday morning.
The barrage of angry correspondence was focused on SLCPD Detective Jeff Payne, and his arrest of University Hospital nurse Alex Wubbels on July 26, when she refused to allow him to draw a patient’s blood. Body camera footage of the encounter had been released Thursday by Wubbels’ attorneys, and the shocking video had started to spread around the country and world.
Chief Mike Brown’s office received hundreds of phone calls and perhaps thousands of emails by the end of the day, department spokeswoman Christina Judd said Saturday.