SAN FRANCISCO — A man wielding a “stake from a tree” attacked a San Francisco Fire Department ambulance Monday morning and attempted to run over the two uniformed paramedics from whom he stole the vehicle while taking it on an incredibly brief joyride.
“From what it sounds like this was just random,” Tim Finch, one of the directors with San Francisco Fire Union 798, told KGO-TV, adding, “I haven’t actually spoken to the crew directly yet, but this was unprovoked and out of the blue.”
Updated story: A man stole an SF ambulance from two paramedics and drove laps in Best Buy parking lot. https://t.co/ZXI0bSLYpu
— KRON4 News (@kron4news) August 29, 2022
📷: SF International Association of Fire Fighters Local No. 798 pic.twitter.com/nBSvO7f5D6
Danny Gracia, the local union’s president, told the TV station that the man approached the vehicle with the two paramedics inside at around 7 a.m. Monday and shattered the ambulance windows with the wooden stake, prompting the paramedics to flee the vehicle.
The attacker then jumped inside and drove the ambulance, apparently trying to run down the medics, Gracia told KGO.
Raj Vaswani, deputy chief of police investigations for the San Francisco Police Department, told The San Francisco Standard that the suspect then “began to drive laps in the Best Buy parking lot” before abandoning the ambulance in the big-box store’s back lot and fleeing the scene by scaling a fence.
This morning two of our members were attacked by someone who used a stake from a tree, smashing windows and trying to assault them. This is another ambulance out of service and two personnel who are rightfully, shaken up. This behavior in our City is not acceptable. (Cont'd) pic.twitter.com/507Dlkw6Ah
— San Francisco Firefighters 798 (@SFFFLocal798) August 29, 2022
Neither paramedic was injured in the attack, the newspaper reported.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed issued the following statement regarding the attack:
“This is upsetting when it happens to our residents, visitors and city staff. Our firefighters, paramedics and all first responders work hard every single day - often putting their lives on the line - to ensure the safety of San Franciscans. We take incidents like this seriously and want to thank SFPD for their involvement in these investigations.”
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