On February 4, 2020, Chief Constable Kevin Brunnader selflessly rushed to the aid of a young mother who had been stabbed in the street. He has now been awarded the “Golden Medal on the Red Ribbon for Services to the Republic of Austria” for his courageous intervention.
During the incident in Graz-St. Peter, the militiaman from the South Medical Center was able to incapacitate the attacker with the help of military hand-to-hand combat techniques. He then acted as first aider and, after the arrival of other emergency services, as incident commander at the scene. In her laudatory speech, Federal Minister Klaudia Tanner was impressed by Kevin Brunnader: “I would like to thank you for your achievements, your courage, your rapid response, your courageous leadership on the scene and the implementation of the skills you have learned and the virtues of a soldier.”
The medical student and paramedic sergeant had immediately recognized “that a man was stabbing a woman lying on the ground with a knife” and reacted in a highly professional manner, as he had been trained to do. Unfortunately, the young woman lost her fight for survival in hospital after receiving first aid. “She only had a chance at all thanks to her efforts – you and we should remember that and it should serve as an example,” said Klaudia Tanner, praising the courageous militiaman. The modest Kevin Brunnader expressed his thanks and confirmed that he would do the same again at any time: “I feel an inner obligation to be there for people, which is why I want to become a doctor and am a militia sergeant in the Austrian Armed Forces.”
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