Police used a stun gun on a Toledo man wearing only underwear after he tried to storm an ambulance and attacked firefighters at a West Toledo fire station early Thursday morning.

Toledo police Lt. Dan Gerken said Bradford Lewis, 36, of Nash Road was stunned with a Taser gun fired by a police officer while police and firefighters tried to subdue him. Mr. Lewis was listed in critical condition at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center Thursday evening, a hospital spokesman said.

Mr. Lewis is charged with aggravated robbery, resisting arrest, and two counts of assault, the lieutenant said. 

Mr. Lewis was under police supervision in the hospital.

Acting Fire Chief Karen Marquardt said Mr. Lewis tried to get into an ambulance about 5 a.m. Thursday at Fire Station 23 on West Laskey Road near Douglas Road, while two firefighters in the vehicle resisted his attempt.

 The ambulance was backing up a driveway at the station after returning from a run when the man opened the back door and tried to get in, authorities said.

Mr Lewis then ran away, but moments later he followed firefighters into the station and “charged them and was forcefully striking them,” Chief Marquardt said. The firefighters tackled the man and tried to hold him as he kept fighting, she said.

Police arrived minutes later and shot him with a Taser gun, inadvertently also shocking one of the firefighters involved in the scuffle, authorities said. 

The man did not have a weapon, they said.

A Toledo police report said Officer David Sprott “utilized his Taser on the suspect” after he “continued to actively resist [police] officers by pushing himself up off the ground and forcefully swinging his arms at TFD personnel and officers.” 

Officer Sprott, 36, was hired by TPD in October of 2013, according to TPD’s human resources division.

The injured firefighter, whose name was not released, was treated at Mercy St. Vincent and released, Chief Marquardt said.

The man’s motive was unclear, authorities said during a news conference at Toledo Fire and Rescue Department, 545 N. Huron St. in downtown Toledo. 

They did not say whether Mr. Lewis has a history of mental illness or whether alcohol or drugs were a factor.

But police said in the report that Mr. Lewis attempted to take a fire department vehicle.

Lieutenant Gerken said Mr. Lewis lives near the fire station.

Chief Marquardt said attacks on firefighters and medical emergency personnel by people “with decreased mental capacity” are fairly common.

Along with the two firefighters who were returning to the fire station from a run, there were three others in the building at the time, authorities said.

Chief Marquardt is acting chief while Chief Luis Santiago is out of town.

Contact Mike Sigov at: sigov@theblade.com, 419-724-6089, or on Twitter @mikesigovblade.

First Published June 19, 2015, 4:00 a.m.