TILDEN TWP., Pa. \u2014 A Nazareth man is accused of assaulting two EMTs while being transported by ambulance through Berks County early Saturday morning, according to Pennsylvania State Police.<\/p>\n
James Zuppert, 58, was being transported by Hamburg EMS from Upper Bern Township to Geisinger St. Luke\u2019s Hospital in Schuylkill County for chest pain and shortness of breath when he allegedly became uncooperative and combative, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Officials say the incident happened around 12:33 a.m. Saturday on Mountain Road in Tilden Township.<\/p>\n
According to state police, when an EMT attempted to physically restrain Zuppert in the back of the ambulance, he pushed the EMT\u2019s arm and twisted it, causing a sprained wrist.<\/p>\n
A second EMT, who was driving the ambulance, stopped and went to help, attempting to sedate and physically restrain Zuppert, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police say Zuppert pushed the second EMT out of the ambulance, causing him to strain his back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the struggle, the second EMT was grazed by an exposed needle that was intended to be used to sedate Zuppert, police said.<\/p>\n
State police troopers responded and took Zuppert into custody.<\/p>\n
Zuppert was charged with aggravated assault and committed to Berks County Prison, according to police.<\/p>\n
Both EMTs were treated at St. Luke\u2019s Hospital and released.<\/p>\n
Leslie Herring of the Hamburg Emergency Medical Services told 69 News they are supporting both employees and ensuring they have the resources they need following the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe safety of our EMS providers is extremely important to us. No first responder should have to fear being assaulted while simply doing their job and caring for the community,\u201d Herring said.<\/p>\n
The two victims were identified by state police as a 69-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman, both from Hamburg.<\/p>\n
Police said the investigation remains ongoing and the information in the release is preliminary and subject to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TILDEN TWP., Pa. \u2014 A Nazareth man is accused of assaulting two EMTs while being transported by ambulance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[214,279,31,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-276702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-berks","tag-crime","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}