Parents of wounded Staten Island EMT speak out: ‘Worst phone call’
The mother of a Staten Island EMT who was shot in his ambulance by a deranged drunk railed about her son’s close call — saying it was “the worst phone call a mom could get.”
“How does my son get SHOT doing his job trying to help people?” Kathy Rowan McMahon, the mother of wounded EMT Richard McMahon, posted on Facebook Thursday.
“The worst phone call a Mom could get,” she wrote. “Thankfully he’ll be ok!!”
She added that her son “has the biggest heart and compassion for his job and patients!!”
Rowan McMahon told one commenter that her son “thankfully twisted his shoulder n that’s where the bullet hit.”
Richard McMahon, 25, an EMT with Richmond University Medical Center, was dispatched on a call of a disorderly patron at Funkey Monkey Lounge on Forest Avenue around 7:40 p.m. Wednesday, according to police.
“I never saw the guy before,” the bar’s owner told The Post, but asked that his name not be used. “My bartender told me she gave him three Jamesons [Irish Whiskey]. That’s it. He had three drinks and left.”
Cops then got a 911 call about an unruly patron outside the watering hole, and an ambulance was dispatched, police said.
The unruly patron, identified by cops as Thomas “Tommy” McCauley, 37, was being transported to the hospital when police said he allegedly pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and fired.
Despite being wounded, McMahon wrestled the gun from the shooter — who was nabbed after a retired NYPD detective and an off-duty sanitation lieutenant grabbed him.
Richard McMahon Sr., the EMT’s dad, said his son was telling the disorderly patient he would get “all the help you need” when he pulled out the handgun and opened fire.
“Luckily the bullet went straight through, no fragments,” the elder McMahon told The Post Thursday. “My son reached out and grabbed the gun away from him and was able to take it away and throw the gun out the back.
“I don’t know how he got the strength to take it away from him after being shot,” the 66-year-old proud father said. “God must have helped him but he took it out with his hands and opened the back doors and threw it out the doors.”
He said that’s when his son yelled for help and the two good Samaritans came to his aid, tackling the gunman and holding him for cops, the dad said.
“Thank God they were there to help,” the father added.
Police said McCauley also had a knife and pepper spray on him.
The younger McMahon is due to be released from the hospital later on Thursday.
McCauley is being held at the 120th Precinct stationhouse and is expected to be transported to court for arraignment later in the day.
NYPD Inspector Mark Molinari said at a press briefing Wednesday that McCauley was known to cops due to a prior call for an emotionally disturbed person.
