RESERVOIR, VIC. — Police early this morning charged a 32-year-old Reservoir after an on-duty paramedic was stabbed in Reservoir yesterday.
Police will allege that the paramedic was stabbed outside a café on Broadway just after 11am.
Investigators allege a male got out of a red Mazda CX-5 and stabbed the paramedic in the face and neck before fleeing Broadway to his home in Winter Crescent, Reservoir, less than 1km away, in the vehicle.
The male paramedic, who recently became a father, was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, where he remains in a stable condition.
A man was later arrested at a property in Winter Crescent in Reservoir just before 1pm yesterday.
The 32-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder.
He was remanded overnight to appear before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has committed to strengthening laws surrounding attacks on emergency workers in response to the incident.
“Victims and union representatives have raised the issue of loopholes in the law, potentially undermining the protections emergency workers deserve,” Ms Allan said in a statement on Thursday.
“We commit to fixing it.”
The government will ask the Victorian Law Reform Commission to review the definition of “on duty” to close any loopholes, Ms Allan said.
Victoria implemented laws in October 2018 to mandate a six-month jail term for injuring emergency workers, unless there were “special reasons”.
The laws were later tightened after James Haberfield, 22, avoided a prison term despite admitting to attacking a paramedic at a musical festival while on a cocktail of drugs.
Haberfield was ordered to serve an 18-month community corrections order and undergo treatment for schizophrenia, which he suffered at the time of the attack.
Under the tightened laws, if a person’s mental state was affected by alcohol or drugs during an attack on an emergency worker, they could not rely on the “special reasons” clause.
On Thursday, Ambulance Victoria chief executive Jordan Emery said the paramedic received a stab wound to his face and neck but was in a stable condition.
He thanked a bystander who intervened during the attack.
“I thank that person from the bottom of my heart for having the courage to step in and take action and care for our paramedic,” Mr Emery said.
