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Boston Fire Dispatcher Catches Mugger

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Jan 22, 2009 4:51 pm US/Eastern

Boston Fire Dispatcher Catches Mugger

Reporting
Ron Sanders

BOSTON (WBZ) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 2: Frank Sullivan
WBZ
Click to enlarge 2 of 2: Christopher Blackwell
WBZ

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An off-duty member of the Boston Fire Department is being hailed as a hero not for fighting fire but for fighting crime.

It happened on Wednesday on the Orange Line. The subway train was approaching New England Medical Center when fire dispatcher Frank Sullivan said he saw a man, later identified as Christopher Blackwell of Charlestown, punch another passenger in the face and rob him of an iPod.

"I was reading this book when it happened. "Practice Random Acts of Kindness." Why read it if you're not going to do it," asked the 53-year-old father of two.

Sullivan says after they got off the train and onto the platform, he tackled the suspect at the escalator. After they struggled on the escalator, Sullivan says he held the suspect until police came and made the arrest. "There was a time when I thought the suspect was reaching for a weapon and my wife and daughters flashed in my eyes."

Sullivan, called a hero by MBTA police and the fire commissioner, went to grammar school with Lt. Kevin Kelley, recently killed in a ladder truck crash. "I'm not a hero. A hero in our department died the other day," Sullivan told reporters.

The T asks riders, 'if you see something, say something'; but Frank Sullivan did something.

He says he's legally blind and deaf in one ear after being shot 29 years ago in Chinatown by restaurant customers having a food fight he tried to stop. "When I lost my vision, due to that shooting -- I got shot twice in the head and once in the arm -- it's a powerful message to me."

Sullivan also says he once wanted to be a priest and, "there's nothing like helping someone else that makes my day."

Not surprisingly, he runs a foundation call P.I.N.C.H. which stands for People In Neighborhoods Can Help. The foundation aids and honors victims of crime and other people who help the police make "pinches," arrests.

The victim, as it turns out, is a senior at Suffolk University from which Frank Sullivan graduated.

Blackwell is being held on robbery and assault charges. His bail, from a previous assault case, was revoked.