Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — The actions of Jared Wayne Maynard and Ryan David Tomkinson changed the way crews from the Steamboat Springs Ambulance respond to calls at Colorado Mountain College.
In the early morning hours of Aug. 28, Maynard, 20, jumped into the driver's seat of an ambulance that had responded to treat a 20-year-old student, who had fallen and hurt his head.
Tomkinson, 18, jumped in the passenger's seat. As Maynard drove the vehicle, medic Jeanne Power tried to stop the two men. As a result, Maynard grabbed Power by her neck and pinned her against the vehicle's dashboard.
The call, which Power has described as one that "had been run 100 times," has had an impact on the way the ambulance handles calls from the local college, said ambulance director Mel Stewart. If a call from the campus comes in the evening, the ambulance crew has the ability to request a police officer respond to the call also, he said.
"If the crew does not feel comfortable, we encourage that a law enforcement officer respond," he said. "We also want to make sure the officer stays with the ambulance crew at the scene."
For the call that led to the theft and the assault, a Steamboat Springs police officer had responded to the scene. However, the officer left the college before the ambulance left the scene.
Power believes it is unfortunate this incident has caused the ambulance crew to be more cautious when responding to the campus.
"Since that incident, I have had to consider every call I go into as dangerous," she said. "I have to hold patients now at an arms length for my own safety."
Because of the incident, Maynard was sentenced to 18 months in the Routt County Jail for his guilty pleas to theft of a motor vehicle and third-degree assault. Tomkinson was sentenced to 30 days in the jail for a guilty plea to theft.
On Sunday, Maynard attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself at the jail. As of press time, Maynard was still being treated at Denver Health Medical Center.
Power was one of the emergency personnel who responded to the Routt County Jail to help revive Maynard Sunday evening.
Maynard hung himself in the jail by tying his bed linen to a railing on the second floor of a cellblock he was sharing with two other inmates.
A hospital spokeswoman would not give any information regarding Maynard's condition Tuesday afternoon. It is against the hospital's policy to give out information on a patient who has attempted suicide, she said.
Undersheriff Dan Taylor said Tuesday Maynard had been put on life support and if he were to be taken off it, he would die.

To reach Gary E. Salazar call 871-4205 or e-mail gsalazar@amigo.net