Man Attacks Two FDNY EMTs Who Were Called to Help Him at Bronx Building

Two city emergency medical technicians were hospitalized after they were attacked by an emotionally disturbed Bronx man they were trying to assist, police said.

The EMTs were dispatched to an apartment on the seventh floor of a building on Sedgwick Ave. near West Burnside Ave. in Morris Heights just after 10 p.m. Thursday, when 22-year-old Jose Bencosme attacked them in the hallway, cops said.

No weapon was used, but one EMT, 32, suffered a deep laceration to his head during the attack that needed staples to close, cops said. A second EMS worker, 20, suffered injuries to his face during the assault.

A woman who lives down the hall from Bencosme’s apartment said she went to her door after hearing a commotion and looked outside, and saw one medic struggling to restrain her neighbor while another was bleeding profusely.

“The other EMT said to him, ‘Is that your or his blood?’ He said, ‘That’s my f—ing blood,'” said the neighbor, who asked that her name be withheld.

As the medics held the struggling patient, his mother could be heard saying, “Relax, papi, relax,” the neighbor said.

Both EMTs were taken to area hospitals where they were treated for minor injuries.

Bencosme’s neighbor described him as “a nice guy, quiet.”

“The boy is very nice. Very nice,” the neighbor added. “I saw him grow up. There’s nothing bad I can say about him.”

Three other EMTs were also hurt trying to get into the building to help their assaulted colleagues, cops said. One of the three cut his hands on glass as he tried to bash down the locked glass door, police said.

EMTs were called to the building to care for a man with an “altered mental status,” an FDNY official said.

Bencosme has no history of mental illness, cops said. It wasn’t immediately clear what led to his emotional distress.

Arriving police took Bencosme into custody without incident.

After the arrest, building crews could be seen clearing away pieces of broken glass on the first floor, ABC Eyewitness News reported. Blood was also found on the hallway’s floor and walls.

Cops charged Bencosme with two counts of assault. His arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending Friday.

This is Bencosme’s first arrest in the city, police said.

After the violent incident, Mayor Mamdani issued a statement of support for the city’s EMTs, plus a commitment to their protection on the job — though without offering specifics.

“Our city’s EMS members are out there day and night across the five boroughs, saving lives and showing up for New Yorkers when they need it most,” Mamdani posted on X. “Their service is extraordinary, and I can’t overstate their hard work, bravery and dedication to our city. We owe them not just gratitude, but real support for their safety — we are committed to making sure they have the protection they need to do this lifesaving work.”

Thursday’s assault comes as the unions for city EMS employees — including EMTs, paramedics and officers — are hammering out a new contract with the city that they hope will ease the crippling pay disparity between them and other city first responders, most notably firefighters.

“Last night’s attack… underscores the serious dangers our uniformed FDNY EMTs and paramedics face every single day in service of our city,” read a statement released Friday by Local 3621, a union representing New York City EMTs. “Yet from pay and benefit parity, to safe and fair working conditions, to overall support, our FDNY EMS members continue to be treated as second-class public servants.”

During a City Council hearing last month, union heads warned that a third of the city’s emergency medical technicians and paramedics are expected to leave this year because the pay parity issue has left them so destitute that some are living in homeless shelters.

Such a devastating drop in personnel would certainly delay response times for medical emergencies, which have already increased by more than two minutes since 2021, Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507, representing EMTs, told the Council.

At the same time, more medics are being physically abused out in the streets, union members said.

Between 2018 and 2021, the number of assaults against EMS members more than doubled, Barzilay wrote in an op-ed in the Daily News in 2023.

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