Milwaukee Firefighter Grazed by Bullet While Treating Patient

Editor's note: Firefighter Jonathan Hall will be presenting "Preventing Assaults & Ambushes on Firefighters" during Firehouse Expo next week in Baltimore. 

A Milwaukee firefighter was shot overnight Sunday while he and other firefighters tended to a patient who had trouble breathing.

The firefighter, whose name and age were not released, suffered a graze wound to the right side of his head and has since been treated and released from the hospital, according to a fire department news release issued Monday.

Firefighters were called just after midnight to the area of N. 40th St. and W. Lisbon Ave. to assist a patient with trouble breathing.

Firefighters assessed and treated the patient and were in the process of transferring the patient to Curtis Ambulance when shots were fired in the direction of the first responders, according to the news release. Several rounds also hit the ambulance.

"Milwaukee firefighters have a difficult and dangerous job, and we are committed to serving our citizens," Fire Chief Mark Rohlfing said in a written statement.

"This incident will serve to heighten our awareness but will not stop us from providing needed emergency medical care to our citizens."

Rohlfing said his department joins with the mayor and police department to demand "a stop to the senseless gun violence that is causing so much pain and suffering in our city."

The firefighter and firefighting crew will continue to receive support for any physical and psychological affects, the news release said.

The shooting came at the end of a deadly holiday weekend that saw six people killed in homicides, including a 14-year-old boy who was fatally shot Friday night shortly after Milwaukee's lakefront fireworks.

Milwaukee police have reported a "person of interest" was taken into custody in connection with boy's killing, but as of Monday morning, police officials have not reported any arrests in the other homicides.

The homicides bring the city's total for the year to 80, nearly double the number the city had reached by this time last year, Journal Sentinel records show.