‘Just nosey’ off-duty paramedic arrested for snooping on deadly plane crash
An off-duty paramedic in Florida was arrested last week when he crossed the police tape surrounding the site of a deadly plane crash and tried to film the scene – telling police he was “just nosey.”
Joseph Salvatore Schifano, 66, was spotted by officers lurking near the fiery wreckage in a mobile home community in Clearwater on the night of Feb. 1, the complaint viewed by The Post explained.
Schifano allegedly tried to get past the yellow tape marked “Police line do not cross” while insisting that he was a medical worker with Sunstar, but he could not provide proof of employment, the complaint continued.
“The defendant advised that he was ‘just nosey.’ He was warned about staying out of the crime scene and advised to move along,” the report stated.
A short time later, however, another officer observed Schifano supposedly trying to conceal himself near the scene before he “quickly walked underneath the crime scene tape,” the complaint said.
By the time Schifano was apprehended, he was “an entire house length into the crime scene and taking video on his cell phone of the crash,” the arresting officer noted.
Schifano was booked shortly before midnight on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing or resisting an officer without violence, Pinellas County jail records showed.
After he was read his rights, the St. Petersburg resident said “that he knew he was wrong, apologized, and said he was trying to capture a video for a media company in an attempt to make money,” the arrest report read.
Schifano – who has a distinctive cross tattoo with a banner that reads “mom” – was released after putting up his $500 bond, the online record showed.
Despite the confusion at the scene of the crash, the suspect does have an active paramedic license that expires at the end of this year, Florida Health Department records indicated.
Neither Sunstar nor Schifano immediately replied to The Post’s request for a comment on the incident.
Meanwhile, the Clearwater Police Department confirmed that three people – two women and one man – died in the Feb. 1 crash.
Jemin Patel was piloting the Beechcraft V35 from Vero Beach when it crashed into the mobile home, killing resident Martha Parry, 86, and visitor Mary Ellen Pender, 54, the formal statement read.
