SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah police officer whose rough arrest of a hospital nurse has drawn condemnation put the woman in handcuffs even after investigators told him not to worry about getting a blood sample he was seeking from a patient, the chief said Friday.

Officers initially wanted the sample as a routine part of a car crash investigation, said Logan Police Chief Gary Jensen. But after Salt Lake City Police detective Jeff Payne was told he’d need a warrant or formal consent to get it, colleagues told him that they would pursue another strategy.

“He simply said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’ll go another way,”‘ Jensen said.

Payne nevertheless insisted. When nurse Alex Wubbels held her ground based on the University of Utah hospital’s policy, Payne dragged her screaming from the hospital in handcuffs. Salt Lake City police apologized and put Payne on paid leave after dramatic video of the July 26 arrest surfaced.

Police spokeswoman Christina Judd said an internal review will look at the directions Payne received and how he responded.

Prosecutors also opened a criminal investigation that widened Thursday when the district attorney asked the FBI to look into possible civil rights violations.

Payne was supported by his supervisor, Lt. James Tracy, who is shown on the body-camera video continuing to insist that police have the right to get the blood after Wubbels was handcuffed in a police car.

Tracy’s lawyer told the Deseret News that he’s been the target of multiple online threats and had to shut down his social media pages since the video was released.

The patient, William Gray of Rigby, Idaho, had been driving a tractor-trailer in northern Utah when he was hit head-on by a man fleeing from Utah Highway Patrol troopers in a pickup truck. The pickup driver was killed when the two vehicles collided.

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