A man was caught on camera going wild in the back of a police car. So who was the man under arrest? It may surprise you to learn he was a physician.
It was an unbelievable scene caught on camera, a man going crazy in the backseat of a police car.
He was screaming at police, accusing them of robbing him, saying, “You grabbing my money, officer? You got my money?”
But you won't believe who he is -- a respected anesthesiologist!
Dr. Zachary Bird, was a handsome, successful Florida anesthesiologist when cops say he nearly side-swiped a Florida Highway Patrol car in his pricey BMW just outside of Orlando. Bird was arrested still dressed in his hospital scrubs. "Right now you're being placed under arrest for the offense of DUI," an officer told him.
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When the cops searched his pockets, they found stacks of money, which they placed on the hood of the patrol car.
“I'm going to put that money right back in your pocket,” said a cop.
The police counted more than $54,000. Dr. Bird told the cops he just came from a high-stakes poker game But police also found two loaded pistols, 50 pounds of ammunition, vials of pills and an unmarked bottle of ketamine, which is a powerful drug used in anesthesia and known to be dangerously abused by some anesthesiologists.
Sergeant Mark Castleberry spoke with INSIDE EDITION’s Lisa Guerrero.
While watching video of the doctor’s arrest, Guerrero said, “He's screaming.”
“Yes,” replied the sergeant.
“He's cursing,” said Guerrero.
“Yes,” replied the sergeant.
“He's accusing you of stealing his money,” Guerrero said. “And it gets worse doesn't it?”
“Absolutely,” he replied.
In the startling video, the doctor started banging his head against the divider and said, “Blood! There's blood! Blood! Take me to the hospital! Take me to the hospital!”
“This is where he absolutely, literally, loses his mind,” Sergeant Castleberry told Guerrero.
In the video, money can be seen falling out of Dr. Bird’s pockets at the same time that he’s accusing cops of stealing it. He repeatedly bangs his head against the while the blood pours down his face.
Then, Dr. Bird climbed out of the patrol car and spat a mouthful of blood right in the face of a police officer.
“It was a lot of blood. It covered his entire uniform,” explained Sgt. Castleberry. “It got on myself. It's just a nasty, gory scene.”
After his arrest Bird pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of driving under the influence and was fired from the hospital where he worked. So where is he now?
We found Dr. Bird as he arrived for work at his new pain management clinic in Tampa with an actual bird perched on his shoulder. He now specializes in treating pain and prescribes painkillers. The INSIDE EDITION I-Squad watched people hanging around outside his office waiting their turn to get their medication.
Inside Edition called the Florida Board of Medicine and they told us that as far as they knew Dr. Bird has never been in trouble with the law. How's that possible?
Lisa Guerrero went to Florida and asked Dr. Nabil El-Sanadi, the chairman of the Florida Board of Medicine, about Dr. Bird. Not only had he never heard of him, he said the board knew nothing about Bird's shocking arrest.
Guerrero told Dr. El-Sandi, “He was banging his head against the divider in a police vehicle. He spit blood into a policeman's face. Do you think that's a problem?”
Dr. El-Sandi replied, “It sounds egregious but I don't know the case and I don't know the facts.
Shouldn't you know the facts?” Gerrero asks?
“We should,” said Dr. El-Sanadi. “Have you reported it?”
In fact, in the state of Florida, doctors are obligated by law to report themselves when they're convicted of a crime or they can lose their license.
The I-Squad wanted to get Dr. Bird's side of the story so we came to the pain management clinic he runs in Florida. But when he saw our camera, he wanted nothing to do with us.
Dr. Bird was in the same snazzy sports car he was driving the night of his arrest.
Guerrero confronted him and asked, “Why would you spit blood on a cop's face, Dr. Bird? Dr. Bird, were you on drugs the night you were arrested?”
