Woman charged with murder in stabbing of paramedic during ambulance ride to hospital

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A woman pleaded not guilty Monday to fatally stabbing a Kansas City, Missouri, paramedic as she was being taken to a hospital in an ambulance.

Shanetta Bossell, 39, was arrested Sunday after trying to drive off in the ambulance as others were tending to paramedic Graham Hoffman’s chest wound, according to court records. She has been jailed on $1 million bond on charges of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, assault and resisting arrest. No attorney is listed for her in online court records.

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The 29-year-old paramedic had worked for the Kansas City Fire Department for three years and was remembered for his commitment to the job.

“Our community grieves his loss at such a young age with his entire life ahead of him,” Clay County prosecuting attorney Zachary Thompson said at a news conference Sunday night.

Police spotted Bossell walking along the shoulder of a highway early Sunday, her finger cut and bleeding, according to the probable cause affidavit. She had been freed on bond just two days earlier in a resisting arrest case that Thompson said involved an assault on a law enforcement officer.

While en route to the hospital, the driver heard Hoffman frantically call for help, saying Bossell had a knife. The driver stopped and then rushed to the back. As he flung open the door, he heard Hoffman say, “She stabbed me in the heart,” the affidavit said.

An officer who was following the ambulance then witnessed Bossell get into the vehicle’s cab and attempt to put it into drive, according to the affidavit. The officer ultimately was able to wrestle her to the ground. But during the fray, she bit his arm, and he hit her in the head with his firearm to get her to let go, the affidavit said.

A second ambulance arrived and the crew rushed Hoffman to the hospital, where he died later that afternoon.

Thompson said any conviction on the murder charge could draw a life sentence without possibility of parole — or even a death sentence. But he did not elaborate on prosecution plans and said police continue to investigate what he described as a “horrific” crime.”

“Let me be perfectly clear,” he said. “Our office will use all legal, moral, and ethical tools at our disposal to ensure justice for Graham, his family and the entire community.”