Paramedic Attacked By Patient In Ambulance: 'He Was Unbuckled And Coming At Me'
UPDATED 11/21/11 4:15 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man was arrested overnight in the South Side's Auburn-Gresham neighborhood and now faces serious charges, after allegedly attacking a Chicago Fire Department paramedic.
Mohamed Natour, 31, of the 4800 block of West 121st Place in Alsip, is charged with one count of aggravated battery, police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak said. He's accused of causing injuries to a paramedic who was helping transport him to Holy Cross Hospital.
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Natour had been a passenger in a car that hit a pole near the intersection of 76th Street and Racine Avenue early Monday.
The injured paramedic is 46-year-old Mike Nolan, who suffered bruising to his face, forehead and nose and a twisted his knee. The 9-year veteran says Natour, whose arm was injured, began behaving in a hostile manner when first-responders arrived on scene around 2 a.m.
While en route to Holy Cross Hospital, Natour allegedly spit on Nolan twice and used racial slurs against his partner, who was driving.
"I turned to get the radio to tell the hospital to have security ready, and he was unbuckled and coming at me," Nolan told CBS 2's Mai Martinez in a telephone interview. "He swung at me then. He missed me then, and then we started to wrestle in the back of the ambulance."
Nolan's partner ran for help and, along with hospital security guards, was able to restrain Natour, police said.
Nolan says attacks on emergency workers are all too common. In fact, he said one of the paramedics who aided him had been struck earlier in his own shift.
"Anyone who says violence is down in Chicago has never been in Chicago, the streets of Chicago," Nolan said.
Natour was not under arrest from the previous traffic crash, police said. However, another driver from the crash ran from the scene.
Both the paramedic and Natour were treated and released from Holy Cross.
Natour's mother, Fathia Natour, says her normally quiet son may have been drinking alcohol, which has been known to "change" his behavior.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
