by JONATHAN LEMIRE
He turned in the badge that saved his life in order to follow a family tradition.
Stuart Ingram, 22, graduated from the Fire Academy yesterday, nearly five months after the former cop cheated death when his NYPD shield deflected an attacker's knife.
"It was time for a change," said Ingram, whose father, Robert Ingram, is the battalion chief for the FDNY's Center for Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness.
"This is what my family does," he said. "This is what I wanted."
When Ingram confronted a drunken driver who nearly ran over a nun in Howard Beach on March 1, the boozed-up suspect lunged at the cop's chest with a steak knife.
But the blade hit the cop's gleaming badge and shattered into four pieces.
"It didn't really hit me what happened until afterward," said Ingram, who was one of 265 probies to graduate yesterday in a ceremony presided over by Mayor Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.
"It's still hard to believe," he said.
As first reported in the Daily News, Ingram had already committed to joining the FDNY before his brush with death. He had taken both the NYPD and FDNY exams while in high school. While waiting to hear from the Fire Department, he joined the police, he said.
"I learned at lot with the police, and both academies were intense and interesting, and I'm grateful for that. But my top priority was always the Fire Department," said Ingram, who also has two uncles in the FDNY.
Robert Ingram beamed with pride yesterday. He was happy his son was following in his footsteps, though he warned that his son's new job possessed dangers of its own.
"In many ways, being a firefighter is more dangerous than being a cop," said Robert Ingram, a 26-year FDNY veteran.
"But dealing with a building on fire involves more science and can make more sense than trying to talk down an emotionally disturbed person with a knife," he said. "I know my son can do both."
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