A woman was arrested Thursday and charged with assaulting an EMS supervisor in South Boston, state police said.
Two state troopers arrested Donna A. Taylor, 37, of Boston, for reportedly striking a Boston EMT in the head and upper body as he was responding to an emergency call at a building near Preble Circle in South Boston, police said.
Authorities said EMTs were treating a patient and asked a crowd of bystanders to spread out; Taylor allegedly struck the responder and staties made the arrest.
Taylor was booked at the South Boston state police barracks and was charged with assault on ambulance personnel, assault and battery on a person over 60, assault and battery, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
A spokeswoman for Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollin’s office said in a statement to the Herald that Taylor was arraigned Friday and released “on her own recognizance with orders to stay away from and have no contact with the victim, comply with a treatment plan, provide probation with proof of treatment and meet in person at probation twice a week.”
Caitlin McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Boston EMS, said the supervisor who was attacked is a 37-year veteran with the department and was unharmed. Thursday’s assault came just a day after an EMT was stabbed outside a Boston courthouse.
Boston EMS Chief Jim Hooley said at a Friday press conference that in 2018, there were 19 incidents where an EMT was assaulted.
“So far this year, we’ve had about 31 (emergency medical technicians) assaulted,” said Hooley. “That concerns me, because sometimes I wonder if we weren’t reporting it in the past, but I don’t think so. I just think the overall numbers are up.”
“We’re worried about the long-term effect on our personnel. And, me personally, I want to make sure that people can handle this and make sure that we really try to eliminate the potential for something like this going forward,” Hooley continued. “We don’t want to see anything like this again.”
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh told reporters Friday at a public event that EMTs “go into the most difficult situations, they get called to everything and they have to deal with it, so hopefully this is not a trend.”
