Firefighter Injured By Box Cutter Won't Press Charges

A firefighter who said he was attacked with a box cutter while off duty in August has decided not to press charges against his alleged attacker, according to the state attorney's office.

The firefighter said that, looking back on the situation, "perhaps the defendant's actions were somewhat justified," Assistant State Attorney Sean Keefe said.

On Aug. 26, firefighter Benjamin Harrison called 911 to report a driver who, he said, was swerving repeatedly.

Harrison told The Tampa Tribune he decided that the man, Richard Martin Bruneau, might kill someone if he didn't take immediate action. Bruneau stopped at a mobile home park on Valrico Road, and Harrison took the man's keys and refused to give them back. During the struggle that ensued, Bruneau attacked him with a box cutter, Harrison said.

"He was not in a normal state of mind," Harrison said today. "He was very intoxicated, and I took it upon myself to deal with somebody that was very intoxicated. I made a huge mistake. I didn't think this thing through. I was shooting from the hip and was trying to help the public. I didn't want this guy to hurt somebody."

Harrison, a driver-engineer with Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph's Hospital. He since has gone home, but he has a "huge" scar on his right leg.

He said he asked the state attorney's office if it was possible to send Bruneau to alcohol rehab instead of trying to send him to prison but was told that it was not.

"The guy was inebriated, and I couldn't press charges," Harrison said. "It's not like he came to my house, broke in my house and cut me with a knife. ... He didn't have to cut me - that was extreme. But seeing the state of mind he was in, I'm surprised he even remembered cutting me."

Harrison said law enforcement felt his own actions were justified in trying to keep the public safe. But now Harrison wants the whole thing to go away.

The day after his arrest, Bruneau said he did cut Harrison. Bruneau, however, disagreed with Harrison's version of events. He said he was sober and was only driving in the park. He said his girlfriend drove him there and that he was sitting in a parked car, waiting for a niece who lives nearby, when Harrison attacked him for no reason. He said he cut Harrison with a razor in self-defense.

Hillsborough County deputies said at the time that Bruneau had committed aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Deputies didn't test Bruneau's blood-alcohol level, sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway said. It was a discretionary choice by detectives not to do so, Callaway said.

In a separate incident Aug. 7, Bruneau was charged with driving under the influence, refusing to submit to testing and driving with a canceled, suspended or revoked license. Bruneau said he "wasn't totally drunk" that night.

That case is pending, and a status hearing is slated for Dec. 10.