Patient charged with attacking Pittsburgh medics in ambulance melee
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A North Side man has been charged with attacking two Pittsburgh paramedics treating him inside an ambulance after he was resuscitated on a Downtown sidewalk.
Mark Nixon, 45, of Perry South, was found unconscious near Wood Street and Third Avenue around 4:20 p.m. Tuesday, according to a criminal complaint in the case. Police officers and paramedics resuscitated him with Narcan, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses, and loaded him into an ambulance for treatment.
The ambulance started to pull away, but as paramedics Amber Schwebel and Daniel Orr were checking Nixon’s vitals, he leaped from the stretcher, tried to punch Schwebel and grabbed her neck, the complaint said.
When Schwebel broke his hold, Nixon punched Orr and strangled him, pinning him to a bench in the ambulance, the complaint said.
“I couldn’t breathe,” Orr told police, “when he had all of his weight down on me.”
Officers ran toward the ambulance and restrained Nixon, shackling him to a stretcher with handcuffs, the complaint said.
The paramedics were examined at the hospital and released with scrapes and bruises, police spokeswoman Emily Bourne said Wednesday.
Nixon was charged with two counts each of aggravated assault and disorderly conduct, as well as strangulation and public drunkenness.
He was arraigned and released on nonmonetary bond by District Judge Nina Ricciardi.
No attorney was listed for Nixon.