Tucson Fire Captain Treating Patient Attacked By Man With Machete

TUCSON, AZ – The Tucson Fire Department will be the first to you that they regularly face danger. They will also tell you that one of the dangers that they don't expect to encounter is a man with a machete.

That's exactly what happened on Monday morning.

It was around 9:20 and firefighters were sent to the 1500 block of West St. Mary's Road after getting a report about person injured after a fall.

While firefighters were treating the person, a friend approached and threatened them with a machete. (Get Tucson Patch's daily newsletter and real-time news alerts. Or, find your local Patch here and subscribe).

The man left and then came back and started assaultingthe fire captain who was on scene.

His fellow firefighters came to his aid and the captain was not seriously injured. They held the assailant until the police arrived.

They arrested 31-year-old Jason Coleman and charged him with aggravated assault on a firefighter.

"We have a dangerous job and do our best to keep each other safe day in and day out," the department said in a statement. "Having a bystander verbally and physically assault us is not a danger we think about."

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Photo via Tucson Fire.