Two Florida firefighters were stabbed while on a call late Tuesday.
The incident happened at about 10 p.m. in Jacksonville's Springfield neighborhood, WJXT-TV reports. During a Wednesday press conference, interim Fire Chief Keith Powers said the patient—later identified as Tony Harris—had been calm when he was placed in the ambulance but became agitated during the ride.
As the ambulance continued to the hospital, Harris got up from the stretcher. He then grabbed a box cutter that Capt. Latorrence Norris had in his pocket and slashed him across the stomach and chest several times, collapsing Norris' lung in the process.
The driver—firefighter Vinnie Harper—pulled over near the hospital and tried to stop the attack, according to WJXT. Harper struggled with Harris and suffered a deep cut to his thigh.
Eventually, police arrived, and Harris was taken into custody. A hospital security guard took Norris, who was bleeding excessively, to the emergency room via golf cart, a decision that Powers said might have saved the firefighter's life.
Doctors were able to stabilize Norris, and he was awake for a visit from the hospital security guard who drove him to the ER. Earlier, Harper was treated for his injury and released.
Harris has been charged with two counts of aggravated battery on a firefighter and resisting arrest, the TV station added.
"Firefighters, public safety workers put their lives on the line every day and to have someone else harm them is just ridiculous," Mayor Lenny Curry told WJXT.
