Hassan Shabbir, 27, has been threatened after he left a note on an ambulance’s windscreen as paramedics battled to save a neighbour’s life
A teaching assistant who blasted an ambulance crew for ‘blocking his driveway’ has been sent a racist poison pen letter warning him: ‘Death awaits you’.
Hassan Shabbir, 27, admitted he was ‘disgusted with himself’ after he left a note on the emergency vehicle’s windscreen as paramedics battled to save a neighbour’s life in Birmingham.
The note, which read: ‘You may be saving lives, but don’t park your van in a stupid place and block my drive’, was posted on Twitter by Tasha Starkey who attended the scene.
Mr Shabbir has now been sent a death threat and West Midlands Police are now investigating.
The letter, which also abused him for being Muslim, was delivered to a wrong address on Saturday morning and was passed to the police who are currently investigating the threat.
It read: ‘AMBULANCE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN ACCESS! HASSAN SHABBIR YOU WILL BE PUNISHED!! WE ARE WATCHING YOU…AND WAITING!! DEATH AWAITS YOU!’
The homeowner who received the letter said: ‘I didn’t look at the front of the envelope, as it had my address on I opened it.
‘I was unaware of the incident until I took a copy of the letter to him and he was visibly shaken and upset.
‘He kept apologising but I told him we all make mistakes and he seemed really sorry for what he had done.
‘It is just worrying that they have the wrong address as I have a wife and three young children, I don’t want any harm caused to us if they have the wrong person.
‘What he has done is wrong, especially as he is a teacher, but he is very scared for his family’s safety.’
Hassan Shabbir, 27, wrote a note and left in on the windscreen and told the ambulance driver to not park on his drive
The paramedics had positioned the vehicle outside a house as they helped a patient who was in a critical condition and vomiting blood – the 42-year-old man later died in hospital
Mr Shabbir admitted his behaviour was ‘appalling’ and that he was ‘disgusted with himself’ after her left the note onto the ambulance’s windscreen inBirmingham.
The ambulance had been forced to double park outside the drugs rehab centre as it had no other option and paramedics battled for an hour and a half to save him.
But the 42-year-old resident passed away after being rushed to hospital with ‘massive internal bleeding’.
Speaking after returning from his job as a teaching assistant at St Saviour’s Primary School in Birmingham, he offered an apology to the deceased man’s family.
The father, from Small Heath, Birmingham, said: ‘What I did was monstrous, but I am not a monster. There is no justification for what I did.
‘I am deeply ashamed at my actions, even before I found out the poor man had died.
‘Now I know that it makes it even worse, and my heart goes out to his family. I feel truly sorry and I completely regret what I did.’
Hassan, who lives three doors down from Livingstone House where the ambulance had parked, claimed he waited patiently behind the ambulance for 20 minutes before losing it and writing the note.
Tasha Starkey, left by herself and left in the right picture with a colleague, who found the note
He said he was coming home to switch cars and go to an appointment on Friday and that previous issues with parking on the street caused him snap.
He said: ‘I was coming home from work and had to go to an appointment on a different car.
‘There was another guy waiting to come out of the drive but we were both blocked by the ambulance for 20 minutes.
‘I just snapped and had a rush of blood to the head. I scribbled the note, rushed out and put it on the windscreen. There is no excuse for what I did. It was very bad.
‘I knew it was wrong before a friend told me what had happened to the man in it. But parking here is very bad, and I’ve been blocked in before.
‘I’ve been blocked by the police as well, not knowing where they are or what they are doing. There have been times I’ve been blocked from going to work. If I could take it back I would.
Hassan, who was born with a congenital condition affecting his right hand which forced him to have reconstructive surgery, says he recognises the value of the NHS and the role it plays.
He even impresses the important of the service to children at school.
He said: ‘Of course we teach respect of the NHS and paramedics at school. It’s very important.
‘I was born with a congenital condition and the NHS had helped me so much in my life. I really respect those guys.
‘When my wife was pregnant with our first child, she had to be rushed to hospital and we were blocked in. It was a bad memory but there is no justification.
‘I have been to pray and ask for forgiveness. I hope the family accept my apology.’
West Midlands paramedic Tasha Starkey sat with a colleague at the rear of an empty ambulance
Centre manager John Hagans (pictured) said the man’s family had been made to feel ‘fifty times worse’ after discovering the note
A neighbour added: ‘My brother was trying to get the car out at the same time as him. We were going to a dessert shop.
‘He dashed out and put the note on the front of the ambulance and ran back inside.
‘We didn’t realise what it said at the time but thought it might be something bad. It’s not good to leave a note like that.’
John Hagans, nurse consultant Livingstone House, a charity and rehabilitation centre for drug and alcohol addicts, told how the organisation was left ‘disgusted’ by the note.
Mr Hagans said: ‘We are completely disgusted by the note. Words fail me. This person deserves to be shamed.
‘If the person who wrote it had had any idea of what was going on inside, they would not have dared.
‘The resident collapsed in the home and was vomiting blood and our nurses and the ambulance crew battled extremely hard to save him.’
Mr Hagans said the patient had been at Livingstone for three months and was clean when he died.
The patient had been at Livingstone House, a charity and rehabilitation centre for drug and alcohol addicts, for three months
He suffered an unrelated medical episode and passed away at Heartlands Hospital on Friday evening.
At the time, West Midlands Ambulance Service, as well as several paramedics, took to social media to express their dismay at the note.
The ambulance service tweeted: ‘Sometimes we just don’t know what to say. This was the note left on an ambulance today.
‘At the time, the crew were helping a man who was extremely unwell after vomiting blood.
‘They took him on blue lights to hospital where he was in a critical condition. #patientscomefirst’
Tasha Starkey, a paramedic covering the south and city centre of Birmingham, was one of the officers who responded to the call.
She too posted a picture of the note on Twitter, which was only discovered when she had safely delivered the patient to the hospital.
She said: ‘Crew alerted an extremely poorly patient to hospital… minimal on scene time, arrived at hospital to find this note… this patient was TIME-CRITCAL.’
Paramedic Clinical Team Mentor Sam Grimson wrote: ‘One of our crews encountered this delightful note after assisting a patient suffering a major internal bleed! The crew were not on scene long due to how poorly the patient was.
‘We always try to park appropriately but sometimes it is not possible.’