Vicious Assaults Against EMS Workers in NYC on the Rise

Vicious Assaults Against EMS Workers in NYC on the Rise 

By: Ilana Siyance 

Emergency Medical Service workers, who spend their days saving lives, are being threatened with attacks almost daily.

As reported by the NY Post, assaults and other threats against EMS workers jumped a whopping 137% from 2018 through last year, as per city data.  Regrettably, the number of “workplace violence” incidents for first responders more than doubled from 163 in 2018 to 386 last year.   In 2019, the number of incidents had increased to 217 and in 2020, while the pandemic was most-critical and when EMS workers were most-needed, incidents leaped to 329.

Last Wednesday, in one such incident, Staten Island emergency medical technician Richard McMahon, 25, was shot in the shoulder by a drunk patient who was in the back of an ambulance.  “Unfortunately, it’s the world we live in. It happens much more than it’s made public,” McMahon told The Post while recovering from the life-threatening attack.  Additional assaults include EMTs and paramedics being punched, kicked, bitten, spit on and threatened with knives and other weapons on a regular basis.  Many of the perpetrators are patients who are on drugs or emotionally disturbed.

In another attack in mid-May, Alexander Kaplan, a 40-year-old paramedic assigned to EMS Station 44 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, was attacked and repeated kicked by an emotionally disturbed patient. The 16-year EMS veteran is currently on the shelf with a line-of-duty knee injury due to the attack.

Many blame the deteriorating environment and the mental health crisis on state lawmakers and their soft-on-crime laws, including the no-cash bail reform.  “It’s disturbing to see these incidents of violence on the rise,” said Oren Barzilay, head of the Local 2507 union representing EMTS, paramedics and fire inspectors. “Bail reform has certainly had an impact.”  Queens Councilwoman Joanna Ariola, who chairs the committee overseeing fire and emergency services, said we will need more stringent bail laws and more police manpower to help keep ambulance crews safe while they are on-call.  “EMS workers have never been more at risk,” Ariola said. “We just had an EMT who was shot.”

On Sunday, The FDNY, which runs the EMS service, made a statement denouncing the attacks.  “Any act of violence against a member of EMS is despicable. EMTs and Paramedics bravely serve New Yorkers and respond to each call with one goal — to save lives by providing outstanding emergency medical care,” said Acting Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.  The FDNY added, that it “has improved communications training and self-defense/de-escalation training for all members, including new hires, in response to these incidents.”