'I was just doing my job,' hero EMT says about saving cop from attacker
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on September 22, 2015 at 3:20 PM, updated September 22, 2015 at 6:36 PM
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Joseph Piergiovanni was cooking dinner when he looked at his phone and noticed his Facebook was lighting up with a couple hundred comments.
The Richmond University Medical Center EMT, who saved an NYPD officer from a potential attack, was the talk of the town after news broke about his heroism.
"I was just doing my job," said Piergiovanni, a Randall Manor resident.
Last Wednesday, authorities were responding to reports of an emotionally disturbed person at 47 Montgomery Ave. in Tompkinsville at around 9 a.m. when Tasha Colon, 34, lunged at an NYPD sergeant with a pair of scissors while officers were trying to contain her boyfriend, police said.
Piergiovanni and the sergeant were in the living room when he saw Colon running from the back of the house with a pair of four-inch scissors ready to attack the officer from behind, the EMT said.
He then grabbed her hand before she could reach the cop, and injured his right index finger when he put her hands behind her back. Then an officer helped him restrain her before she was arrested.
"I was just thinking 'stop her before she hurts somebody,' " he said. "It was a gut reaction. Luckily, it wasn't serious. I think people were thinking I lost my hand or something."
Piergiovanni, 29, was treated at the RUMC emergency room and back at work an hour later.
In five years on the job, Piergiovanni said he's helped out a few cops from possible attackers, but he had never been injured on the job.
"We are very proud of him," said Bill Amaniera, administrative director of Emergency Medical Services. "They arrive at a scene and they don't know what to expect. It was a good thing he was thinking as fast he did because he prevented an injury to the officer and himself."
Colon was charged with felony assault in the second degree, resisting arrest and criminal possession of a weapon, an NYPD spokeswoman said.
The Richmond University Medical Center EMT, who saved an NYPD officer from a potential attack, was the talk of the town after news broke about his heroism.
"I was just doing my job," said Piergiovanni, a Randall Manor resident.
Last Wednesday, authorities were responding to reports of an emotionally disturbed person at 47 Montgomery Ave. in Tompkinsville at around 9 a.m. when Tasha Colon, 34, lunged at an NYPD sergeant with a pair of scissors while officers were trying to contain her boyfriend, police said.
Piergiovanni and the sergeant were in the living room when he saw Colon running from the back of the house with a pair of four-inch scissors ready to attack the officer from behind, the EMT said.
He then grabbed her hand before she could reach the cop, and injured his right index finger when he put her hands behind her back. Then an officer helped him restrain her before she was arrested.
"I was just thinking 'stop her before she hurts somebody,' " he said. "It was a gut reaction. Luckily, it wasn't serious. I think people were thinking I lost my hand or something."
Piergiovanni, 29, was treated at the RUMC emergency room and back at work an hour later.
In five years on the job, Piergiovanni said he's helped out a few cops from possible attackers, but he had never been injured on the job.
"We are very proud of him," said Bill Amaniera, administrative director of Emergency Medical Services. "They arrive at a scene and they don't know what to expect. It was a good thing he was thinking as fast he did because he prevented an injury to the officer and himself."
Colon was charged with felony assault in the second degree, resisting arrest and criminal possession of a weapon, an NYPD spokeswoman said.
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