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NC EMTs getting 30 bulletproof vests

Officials spent a year trying to get the vests, which were bought with a $10,500 state grant

By Paul Choate
WGHP

ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, N.C. — Thirty bulletproof vests will soon be placed on Rockingham County EMS ambulances to protect EMTs and paramedics from the unexpected when out in the field. Officials have been working on getting the vests for a year and used $10,500 from a state grant to pay for them.

“They go into shootings,” said Rockingham County EMS Director Johnny Bowles. “They go into stabbings. They go into assault situations. They go into the same dangers that law enforcement go in.”

A scary situation assistant training officer, Justin Stewart has been in several times throughout his career. “I was working on a chest pain call, was working on a patient, was moving the patient over when we actually heard the gunshot go off,” Stewart said.

Full story: Rockingham County EMS getting bulletproof vests