A 31-year-old man is facing felony charges of aggravated assault on a firefighter after a Monday incident on Tucson's west side, officials said.
Jason Coleman is being held in the Pima County jail on a $10,000 bond in connection with the two counts of aggravated assault on a firefighter, according to jail records.
Shortly before 9:30 a.m., Tucson Fire Department went to the 1500 block of West St. Mary's Road for reports of a possible fall injury, Capt. Andy Skaggs, a department spokesman, wrote in a news release.
When crews arrived, they found a man who needed medical assistance and two bystanders who were offering advice on how to care for the patient. The bystanders were asked to leave the area, but one "proceeded to forcefully offer his own treatment" to the man. TFD employees asked the man to leave again, at which point he made several threatening comments, revealed a machete and continued to threaten TFD employees, the release said.
The TFD crews moved to a safe distance away and asked the bystanders again to leave. They walked a short distance away, but a few minutes later, the bystander without the machete returned and assaulted a TFD captain, the release said.
Other crew members were able to intervene and keep the attacker at bay until Tucson police arrived, the release said.
The captain was evaluated at the scene but didn't require a trip to the hospital and was able to continue working for the shift, Skaggs said.
The patient with the suspected fall injury was evaluated by a different unit and taken to the hospital for treatment.
