BRONX, NY – Authorities are investigating the unexpected death of a 49-year-old man from the Bronx, who passed away after head-butting an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). The unusual incident happened at around 10:20 a.m. on Friday in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. Police officers were summoned to assist medics treating the man inside his apartment on Prospect Avenue.
The emergency medical personnel had been called to tend to injuries the man had sustained from a previous motorcycle crash, explained the NYPD. However, the situation turned volatile as the man attacked a 33-year-old EMT after being positioned in an ambulance.
By the time police officers reached the location, EMS had already transported the now-detained man to Lincoln Hospital for treatment of a head injury. His subsequent death at the hospital is currently under investigation. The man’s identity remains withheld, awaiting family notification.
The assaulted EMT, a member of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), received treatment at Lincoln Hospital and has been discharged, an FDNY spokesperson confirmed.
The death is now being investigated by the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division. It marks the latest in a concerningly increasing trend of violent attacks carried out against the city’s first responders. Previously, in July, a patient stabbed a medic in her ambulance in Manhattan, and in September 2022, a seasoned medic, 61-year-old Alison Russo, became a victim of a random stabbing near her station house in Astoria.