The former captain of the Etowah County Rescue Squad has been arrested for criminally negligent homicide related to the drowning death of a rescue squad volunteer April 25. Michael Ervin Bettis, 49, Gadsden, was arrested on the misdemeanor charge after he was indicted by an Etowah County grand jury, according to a news release from Sheriff Todd Entrekin.
The news release cited state law that a person commits criminally negligent homicide if he or she causes the death of another person by criminal negligence ... Volunteers with the rescue squad were among those who responded to the low-head dam at the old steel plant pump station for the recovery of the body of a kayaker who went missing in the water about 11 a.m. April 25.
Gadsden Fire Department officials ordered the rescue squad members to stay out of the water and work only from the bank because of unsafe conditions. Neither fire department personnel nor the sheriff’s office dive team members went in the water. Despite the instructions, the rescue squad put two boats in the water about 5:30 p.m. One of the boats, then the other, got too close to the dam and capsized.