By Ginger Adams Otis
The New York Post
NEW YORK — Two quick-thinking EMTs wrestled a psychiatric patient into submission after he made a terrifying grab for a cop’s gun, The Post learned yesterday.
Kyle Barbaria and Eddie Rodriguez were delivering another patient to St. Barnabas Hospital’s emergency room at 8 p.m. Thursday, said hospital spokesman Steve Clark, when they heard the officer yell, “He’s going for my gun!”
A middle-aged man who had undergone a psychiatric evaluation was frantically trying to rip the pistol from its holster, Clark said.
Barbaria jumped to the officer’s aid and the three fell to the floor in a desperate struggle as people ran screaming from the ER.
“I just kept trying to roll the man over so he was on the floor, and he kept trying to pull his arms free so he could get the gun clear,” said Barbaria, 38. “It’s a cliché, but my mind was blank except for one thing - I only thought of my 2-year-old daughter.
“The man was so strong, crazy strong.”
When Rodriguez joined the scuffle, Barbaria and the cop were able to pin the crazed man and hold him until more help arrived.
“We were all a little shaken up,” Barbaria said. “The cop kept thanking us, and we kept thanking him, because it took all our combined strength to stop the worst from happening.”
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