Republican Sen. Ed Hooper is proposing legislation that would stiffen criminal penalties related to the murder of a on-duty firefighter.
Under the proposal (SB 370), the convicted murderer of a firefighter would face the same consequences as a person who killed a police or correctional officer — life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Speaking to Florida Politics, Hooper said firefighters are worthy of the same legal classification as their first responder counterparts. They, he asserted, face many of the same risks as law enforcement officers.
“I just don’t think that they ought to be treated differently if they’re all responding to the same emergencies at the same time,” Hooper, a retired firefighter himself, said.
Indeed, firefighter and paramedics are frequently involved in perilous situations — from police raids and active shooter incidents to hostage situations and other mass casualty incidents that require police intervention.