Encino, California, stabbed in hospital: 3 people injured, suspect arrested
LOS ANGELES – A man stabbed a doctor and two nurses inside a Southern California hospital Friday before barricading himself inside the facility, authorities said. He stayed in a room for hours before the police arrested him.
The Los Angeles Police Department received a call around 3:50 p.m. about a possible stabbing at Encino Hospital Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley, Officer Jeff Lee told USA TODAY.
Authorities said the man parked his car in the middle of the street and went to the emergency room, where he requested treatment for anxiety before stabbing the doctor and nurse.
Nicholas Prange, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, told USA TODAY all three victims were transported to a local trauma center in critical condition.
All three were later listed in stable condition at Dignity Health Northridge Hospital Medical Center, the AP news agency reported.
Helicopter footage taken by local TV stations showed an injured staff member in a blue medical suit being carried out of the hospital on a stretcher. The front of the hospital is blocked with yellow warning tapes and about a dozen ambulances.
The man was in a hospital room for about four hours when SWAT team members tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with him before he was arrested, police said.
He was taken to another hospital for treatment of a self-inflicted wound to his arm, authorities said.
The man’s name was not immediately released, but Hamilton said he has a long criminal record, including two arrests last year for using a police gun and resisting arrest.
The attack comes just two days after a gunman killed four people and then committed suicide at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Authorities say the attacker entered a building on the Saint Francis Hospital campus just hours after purchasing an AR-style rifle.
MEDICAL NIGHT CARE:The mass shooting at the Tulsa clinic is just the latest deadly attack on US healthcare workers.
A TULSA SHARE VICTIM DIED BARRICADING A DOOR:His wife watched their 54-year marriage come to an end without a goodbye.
The man who killed his surgeon, whom he blamed for his continued pain after recent back surgery, and three others.
Violence in healthcare settings is something researchers have warned about in recent years: “The risk of workplace violence is a serious occupational hazard for nurses and other care workers.” other health”, a Recent research by National Nurses United shows that. “The myriad acts of assault, gunfire, aggression and threats of violence that regularly take place in healthcare settings represent a terrifying trend of increasing violence that healthcare workers are experiencing. economy faced across the country.”
Contributors: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; Related press