Vincent Harper, one of two Jacksonville firefighters who were stabbed in October by a patient in their ambulance, has been selected as the American Legion Firefighter of the Year in the state of Florida, according to a news release from the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department. Harper and Capt. Latorrence Norris spoke with News4Jax, saying they were dangerously close to losing their lives at the hands of someone they were trying to help. The JFRD partners were taking a patient to a hospital, when they said the man began attacking them with a box cutter.
“We were a couple blocks from the hospital. That’s when he pretty much flipped out,” Norris told News4Jax in January, who explained the patient stood up on the stretcher, became irate and then grabbed his box cutter from his pants.