After racing across the borough we had made it to the block our call would be on. We slowed down in an effort to locate the correct building. Finding address numbers from the street is not always easy. Down the road we could see someone sitting on their stoop. Since he made no effort to wave or flag us we assumed he was not associated with our call. When we reached his building we found that we were wrong.

He was probably around 16 or 17 years old and he got up angrily and made his way to our vehicle. He had an odd stomping type of gait that made it appear that his sneakers didn’t fit-and by the size of his sneakers it seemed true. His green athletic shorts appeared to be oversized as well. He also had on a tank top and a thick gold chain. He had messy hair and freckles and he was really mad.

He pounded on my window when he got to it. “Sure, take your time, bitches! Who cares if a man is dying upstairs? Right?” He backed off a little but he rattled me. My partner turned off the truck and got out. The kid started stomping over to the building thinking we were following. He turned back to look at us, furious that we weren’t right behind him. He gave us that “come on” look.

“We have to get equipment.” my partner said.

“Fucking just take your fucking time you lazy fucking cunts….Just let my uncle bleed to death why don’t you?” He came closer and lifted up his tank top to show us that he had a firearm. “I ought to pop the both of you so you could see what that’s like.”

My partner and I exchanged glances. “How about you open the door for us. We will be right there,” we told him. The kid was annoyed but apparently he didn’t think it was such a big deal to threaten people with a gun. He walked over to the door.

Instead of opening the side compartment where our equipment was, we opened the side door to the ambulance patient compartment and we both got in and shut the door behind us.

“10-13!” we screamed into our radio. This is a distress call for assistance. We gave our unit and location and requested police assistance immediately. We told the dispatcher we had been threatened with a gun and gave the description of the teenager. The dispatcher advised us to find a ‘safe place’ until police arrived.

The kid came back to the ambulance and began pounding on it. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he demanded. He continued to curse us and I wondered what kind of protection the walls of this vehicle really offered us.

It seemed like a long time but it was really just a few minutes that we sat crouched down from the flimsy windows of the patient compartment. Our call for help was answered in a spectacular display as multiple police cars and ambulances pulled up to the scene. We continued to wait inside until we saw that the police had surrounded our potty-mouthed antagonist.

“Why are you arresting me? Arrest THEM! Those girls don’t care if my uncle is DYING.” he was yelling.

“Well,” said the cop. “If he was dying, you killed him by threatening the people who could have done something about it.” The loaded gun was secured and the kid showed no sign of remorse.

A lieutenant showed up after all the ambulances, which is automatic today but was not always the case back then. I recognized Lt. Larry from a station close to ours. I didn’t know much about him but he wasn’t very popular. His face was smiling and he seemed to be doing this ‘calm down’ motion with his hands. As he walked by he told everyone to go back into service. One crew offered to stay and check out the original patient. “That probably won’t be necessary,” he told them.

He came over to us and made a face that I read to be ‘oh you hysterical women, what have we done now?’ He asked us what the “fuss” was about.

“I guess you didn’t hear our radio transmission.” I offered. The implication that he hadn’t monitored his radio properly seemed to make him defensive.

“So you were threatened? With a gun?” he didn’t seem to realize there was a man being arrested for that very thing. We explained that yes, that is exactly what happened. “You mean it was just in his pants? So you even know what a real gun looks like? Especially if he never took it out?” This was incredible. What stupid girls we were for quickly thinking the worst and acting on it. “He was probably just trying to scare you. Is that why you didn’t go inside to check on the patient? Did you think about him? What about him, what’s he doing?”

A police officer heard what was going on and said “Are you implying that they should have ignored the threat? Are you saying that you’d risk having them shot and killed? You’re a terrible boss, a terrible human being. Honestly. I think you should leave.”

Lt. Larry turned to him and said “It’s easy for you to say. You have no idea. We’ve got calls holding. Look at all these ambulances here, all in one place. These girls are OK. Nothing happened.” He turned to us. “Now who’s going to go check on the patient? Did anyone think about him?”

The crew that had offered originally to check on the patient told him they were going. They asked some of the officers on scene to accompany them. It would turn out later that the uncle only had a varicose vein that had started bleeding. It may have looked dramatic but it was not life-threatening. If anyone had been overdramatic it had been us, according to Lt. Larry. It certainly wasn’t our man with the gun.

Lt Larry rolled his eyes but let them take over the call. “And so what are you going to do?” he asked us.

“They’re going to the precinct to make a statement.” said the officer.

“You mean he’s really arrested?” asked Larry. He said it kind of sardonically, as if some macho, he-men had made a show of things just to impress the ladies. Everyone was making a big deal for nothing. I heard from someone later that when he told the story to his peers he implied that the gun had probably not even been real, as if that really would have made any difference. He painted himself as the only rational person at the scene, concerned with getting units back into service and making sure the original patient didn’t file a lawsuit against the city.

“Yes. He’s really arrested. This is a felony,” said the cop. Lt. Larry raised his arms up in a big gesture of surrender to the overblown nonsense of the day.

The kid had been watching the exchange the whole time. As he got into the police car he started laughing and said to the cop, “Wow. That man really is an asshole.”