A city firefighter was stabbed today while responding to a medical call in downtown Los Angeles, prompting an intensive police search for the assailant.
The firefighter, identified by the Fire Department as nine-year veteran Charles Anthony MacDougall, was expected to survive.
The stabbing occurred around 10:50 a.m. in the 600 block of South Main Street in downtown Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
KCAL9 reported that MacDougall and other firefighters were responding to a medical call at the Hotel Cecil and were searching for a patient inside the building when the stabbing occurred. MacDougall was reportedly stabbed in the back and chest.
Police were called and officers went floor by floor, searching for the assailant.
"The officers got on scene, met with some of the fire department personnel and determined that there was a stabbing of one of the firefighters somewhere inside of the location, possibly," LAPD Capt. Todd Chamberlain said around 1 p.m. "At that time, the location was kind of -- we contained it. A perimeter was established around the structure and a systematic search is under way at this time."
LAPD Sgt. Daniel Widman described the suspect as a man in his 30s with a dark complexion and wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt.
Main Street was closed between Sixth and Seventh streets while the search continued.
