EMT’s claims of marathon bombing heroics debunked

Ex-Granite Stater disgraced in St. Louis

A former New Hampshire paramedic who claimed to have jumped into action in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings to help pull injured people to safety was not at the finish line that day and lied about his heroics to his current employer, the St. Louis Fire Department said yesterday.

Shawn Daniel, a paramedic training officer in St. Louis, Mo., who was working in 2013 for a New Hampshire-based ambulance crew with American Medical Response, told supervisors he was at the Boston Marathon and he “ran toward the blast site to assist the injured” — bolstering his claim by offering a photo of a first responder helping an injured bystander, according to a statement from St. Louis fire Capt. Garon Mosby.

The fire department said it had highlighted Daniel’s alleged bravery in a Facebook post Jan. 18 that featured Daniel being honored at a St. Louis Blues hockey game for being a “Hometown Hero.”

Immediately, “several members of our first responder community in the Bo s ton/ New Hampshire area” reached out to the St. Louis Fire Department and questioned the validity of Daniel’s statements.

St. Louis Fire said its internal investigation of Daniels’ claims found: He provided false information about his location and actions after the marathon bombing; he falsely identified himself in video footage of a first responder helping an injured person; and he falsely claimed the National Guard told him to move patients after he rushed to the scene.

The first responder in the photograph Daniel offered was identified as a Boston firefighter, officials said.

American Medical Response spokeswoman Kim Warth told the Herald Daniel was an employee at the time of the marathon bombings, but she said she could not confirm his account of that day.

FOX 25, which broke the story, citing dispatch records, reported that Daniel was assigned to a wheelchair van more than 70 miles from Boston.

Daniel did not return Herald calls for comment. The department said Daniel “apologizes for providing false information, and for bringing undue press and bad publicity onto the department.”

Mosby said Daniel is on “personal leave” and the matter will be “dealt with as an internal personnel matter.”

“There is an expectation that all members will conduct themselves with integrity and honesty,” Mosby said. “On behalf of the St. Louis Fire Department, we apologize to our sisters and brothers in the first responder community that were rightfully offended and angered by this incident.”

‘We apologize to our brothers and sisters in the first responder community ...’ — ST. LOUIS FIRE DEPT.