Two years ago, a 20-year-old man recorded himself physically assaulting a 75-year-old Army veteran in a Detroit nursing home. The attacker, Jaden Hayden, had recently been transferred to the nursing home following a Covid-19 diagnosis, per Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s orders.

Just a month before the assault, Gov. Whitmer signed an Executive Order that sent COVID patients to nursing home facilities despite the fact that the elderly were already at a high risk of dying from the disease.

In May of 2020, Hayden, who was already suffering from mental illness, reported “hearing voices” and was sent to the University of Michigan Hospital where he was diagnosed with COVID. He was promptly transferred from the group home he was living in, to the Westwood Nursing Center.

On May 15, Hayden set up his phone to record himself punching nursing home resident Norman Bledsoe. In the video, Hayden begins to assault a helpless Blesdoe while yelling “Get the f*** off my bed!” After nursing home staff ran in to help the elderly man, Hayden said he had just fallen out of his bed.

Jaden Hayden, 20, attacking 75-year-old Norman Blesdoe in his nursing home

 

Nursing home patient Norman Bledsoe

Bledsoe suffered broken ribs, fingers, and a broken jaw from the attack.

Even crazier than the random attack, Hayden proceeded to post the video to social media. He was arrested a week later and accused of stealing Bledsoe’s credit cards in addition to the assault.

WATCH (Graphic Content Warning):

Joely Pointer, an employee at the nursing home, reported on Bledsoe’s injuries saying, “He had a very large contusion to his head. There was blood. He was very confused and he could not give me a statement as to what happened.”

Tragically, Bledsoe died just weeks after Hayden attacked him in his bed. Despite all of this, the death was not classified as a homicide and charges have reportedly been dropped due to Hayden’s “mental incompetence.”

Jaden Hayden

This all could have been prevented if it had not been for Whitmer’s reckless COVID policy that she implemented despite concerns from health officials. While Michigan residents were barred from traveling to their second homes in northern Michigan during the early pandemic, Whitmer had no problem shipping COVID-positive patients to nursing homes in the north.

These nonsensical actions facilitated the spread of COVID to those who were most at risk for serious, potentially fatal infection.

The Michigan Governor also refused to release the data that reveals how many citizens were killed in nursing homes as a result of COVID infections. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff even filed a lawsuit against Governor Whitmer after trying for months to get straight answers and statistics detailing the coronavirus-related death toll in nursing homes.

 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

Following the assault of Bledsoe, local news stations reported on the beating but failed to mention Whitmer and her reckless decisions to place COVID-positive patients into nursing homes that were allegedly being paid $5k per COVID patient. However, if it had not been for the selfish orders from the Governor, Bledsoe would never have suffered such a horrible attack. The mentally ill 20-year-old should never have been in this nursing home to begin with given his history of violence and mental instability, and he certainly shouldn’t have been there while infected with COVID.

Hayden is now being held in a confined Kalamazoo psychiatric hospital, and the Bledsoe family is suing the nursing home.

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