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A man will face court on Friday charged with attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed a paramedic in the face and neck outside a cafe in Melbourne’s north.
Police allege a 32-year-old man stopped his car outside the cafe on Broadway in Reservoir just after 11am on Thursday, jumped out and stabbed the paramedic in the upper body.
The on-duty paramedic, who had stopped for a coffee, performed first aid on himself before help arrived.
He was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
“Investigators allege a male got out of a small, red car and stabbed the paramedic to the upper body before fleeing in the vehicle,” police said in a statement.
The alleged offender was arrested in Winter Crescent, Reservoir, just before 1pm on Thursday and charged later that night. He will face the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
The attack prompted the Allan government to reveal it planned to strengthen the law to make jail mandatory in all circumstances for people who assault emergency services workers.
Injuring an emergency worker has been a category 1 offence requiring a prison sentence since 2018, but this masthead revealed in February a man had avoided jail despite hospitalising a female paramedic as she was not treating a patient when she was attacked.
The ambulance union has since been lobbying the Victorian government to close the loophole.
The paramedic, a 20-year-old man originally from the Northern Territory, remained in Royal Melbourne Hospital’s emergency department on Thursday night in a serious but stable condition.
Ambulance Victoria chief executive Jordan Emery said the attack was random, unprovoked, and took place while the victim was getting out of his vehicle.
“It is completely unacceptable that people who spend their lives caring for others – who give so much to care for their communities – continue to face violence on a daily basis,” he said on Thursday afternoon, flanked by a dozen paramedics outside the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Emery said a bystander had intervened to stop the offender, which allowed the paramedic to perform first aid on himself – despite bleeding profusely – until his colleagues arrived.
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