A man named “Paramedic of the Year” in 2020 was arrested on Monday for allegedly playing a role in stealing doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
Joshua Colon, 21, of Florida, admitted to forging paperwork to conceal the supervisor’s theft of three syringes of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, NBC News report. Colon is facing charges of forgery, fraud and misconduct.
Colon was named Paramedic of the Year by the president’s roundtable in Polk County, Fla. In 2020, and he resigned from his post on Friday.
Polk County Fire Rescue Captain Anthony Damiano, Colonel Supervisor, allegedly joked about wanting a vaccine for his mother, and Colon threatened when he did not give him the vaccines. The captain then orders Colon to take a breather, after which three pre-filled syringes disappear from the vaccine.
Colon then falsified the paperwork when asked to provide documents for the vaccines.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference that the counterfeit was discovered when a difference was noticed in three different vaccination forms filled out by Colon. The paramedic was given three vials of the vaccine to administer to the first responders in Polk County, NBC News reported.
Authorities contacted some of the people listed on the forms as recipients of the vaccine, only to find that none of them had been vaccinated.
“The bottom line is that Joshua was trying to cover up the captain. Joshua instituted the circumstances that the vaccines were stolen,” Judd said. “If Joshua had just gone to his boss, he would have been the hero, but instead he started falsifying paperwork by covering people who did not exist.”
A spokesman for the Sheriff of Polk County told NBC News that the charges against Damiano were “on hand” and that he was currently at large.
“Colon deeply regrets his weakness by not warning the Commandant’s chain about the theft of the vaccine, accepts responsibility for his mistake in concealing the theft, and in an effort to protect the reputation of his agency, he mail resigned., ‘says David Carmichael, a lawyer representing Colon.