iStock/Thinkstock(CLEVELAND) — An Ohio sheriff’s department employee overdosed while on the job several weeks ago and grappled with first responders after they had revived him, police said.
This week, the Brooklyn Police Department provided ABC affiliate WEWS with footage from police body cameras showing the March 23 incident.
Police found 54-year-old Paul Grivas slumped over and unresponsive at the wheel of his car in the parking lot of an IHOP in the Cleveland suburb of Brooklyn on March 23, according to the incident report. Grivas, who works as a process server for the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, was revived after several doses of naloxone, an antidote for opioid overdoses.
But as firefighters and medics were examining him, Grivas began to struggle and had to be physically restrained. He managed to break free at one point and struck a fireman in the head with his knee, “hard enough for him to ‘see stars,'” according to the incident report.
“He was flailing his arms, kicking his legs,” Brooklyn Police Officer Joe Bugaj said in a recent interview with WEWS. “You never know what could happen, whether or not they’re going to be upset, because we are basically taking that high away from them.”
The fireman was taken to a local hospital, where he was diagnosed with a mild concussion.
Police found a sheriff’s department badge and a process server ID in Grivas’ car, according to the incident report. Police also discovered several subpoenas in the backseat that Grivas was in the process of serving, WEWS reported.
“It was definitely a different situation dealing with somebody that’s in the same line of work we are,” Bugaj told WEWS.
Grivas, who lives in Lakewood, Ohio, has been charged with assaulting a peace officer and obstructing official business. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas on May 21, according to court records. It was unclear whether Grivas has entered any pleas or has obtained a lawyer.
ABC News’ email to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, requesting comment and an update on Grivas’ status, was not immediately returned Friday.
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