TITUSVILLE, Fla. – A Titusville anesthesiologist identified by Florida Highway Patrol investigators as acting erratically on video from a patrol car's dashboard camera has been suspended and his employer removed him from the schedule indefinitely.
Bird will also no longer be allowed to carry out procedures at Parrish Medical Center where he worked, hospital officials say.
Zachary Charles Bird, 41, was pulled over during a May 20 traffic stop on State Road 417 in Orlando after nearly colliding with a marked Florida Highway Patrol cruiser, records show.
Bird had been contracted through the company Team Health to perform anesthesiology at the hospital. But after the video showing Bird slamming his head inside the patrol car and kicking at the vehicle's window, Parrish Medical officials said they were going to severe the relationship with Bird and Team Health officials said he has been suspended.
"He will not be returning to Parrish. We have informed his employee that he will not be allowed to return," Natalie Sellers, a spokeswoman for Parrish Medical Center in Titusville, told Local 6 News partner Florida Today.
During the traffic stop, troopers conducted sobriety tests on Bird, described by the troopers as having bloodshot eyes and smelling of alcohol. After being arrested and placed inside the patrol car, troopers said Bird became disruptive, yelling about a $54,000 in cash troopers found in his car, officials said.
But Bird grew angrier as he sat in the car, troopers reported.
"Grabbing my money, huh, officer…you got my money…you got money of mine?
Document that money, (expletive)…you officers are stealing my money out of my car as we speak," the doctor said, handcuffed and sitting in the back of a patrol car."
The money was turned over to FHP's Orlando station for safekeeping, records show.
Bird then bashes his head against the interior, causing a large laceration on his forehead. "Hey, stop banging your head," the officer says, seeing the blood.
"Hey, blood….take me to the hospital!" he said in the video, smearing his forehead inside the patrol car. He then kicked at the windows as troopers attempted to talk with him.
Later, troopers said Bird cleared his throat, took a breath and spit a blood into one of the face of one of the officers.
He was transported to a nearby hospital and later charged with battery on an officer.
Officers also found a loaded .44 caliber revolver and a Glock 21 with 13 rounds inside his vehicle along with two prescription bottles, reports show.
Other charges are pending in the case, FHP reports.