Knife-Wielding Man Killed in Hospital

An Ojai man with a history of mental illness was shot to death by police late Saturday after he stabbed three people inside the emergency room lobby at Community Memorial Hospital and then came at officers with a knife, authorities said.

The 48-year-old man died about two hours after the 10:30 p.m. shooting, police said Sunday. His name was withheld pending notification of his family.

“He had a documented history of mental health problems and had been treated several times over the years by mental health professionals,” said James Baroni, a senior deputy coroner.

Two unarmed security guards and a hospital maintenance worker suffered minor stab wounds, police said. They were treated and released.

The stabbings, which authorities said appear to be the first serious workplace violence inside a hospital in the county in nearly two decades, occurred in the hospital’s emergency room waiting area at Loma Vista Road and Brent Street.

Police described the scene as chaotic, with more than a dozen people, including patients, family members and doctors and nurses crouched behind desks and holed up in examination rooms.

“This was a hot and volatile situation,” Ventura Police Lt. Carl Handy said.

The man walked into the waiting area about 10 p.m., police said. Earlier, he had been at nearby Ventura County Medical Center seeking some kind of help but left before being examined, according to an employee there. The employee said the staff knew the man.

At Community Memorial, two security guards who were patrolling the emergency room approached the man and asked if he needed help.

“It was the time of night where no visiting was going on and they were not sure why he was there,” Handy said.

Moments later, the man punched one of the security guards, then stabbed him once in the neck with a 2-inch pocketknife before poking the other guard in the stomach, police said. The hospital employee, who serves as backup security, suffered a cut to the head.

When officers arrived, they found the man still lingering in the empty waiting area, police said. The victims, who had been helped to safety by emergency room personnel, were being treated for their wounds in nearby examination rooms.

“[The officers] contained the area and tried to calm him down,” Handy said. Throughout the incident, which lasted about 15 minutes, the man made several statements but Handy would not elaborate.

The situation was especially tense because two women who saw the man scuffling with the security guards had locked themselves in a hospital restroom and activated a security alarm, Handy said. Authorities were concerned the women may have been hurt, he said.

“We didn’t know what their situation was. We knew we had people in there and the alarm was going off, but we didn’t know what was going on,” Handy said.

The restroom was in a hallway between the man and the officers who were talking to him, Handy said.

“The two were barricaded in there and scared to death,” he said.

When the man refused to surrender, officers fired one or two sandbag rounds and about six rubber projectiles, authorities said.

“Those didn’t stop him and he came at officers with the knife and he was shot once with a 9-millimeter,” Handy said.

Police would not say how far away the officer was from the suspect and other specifics. The officer has been interviewed and placed on paid leave, as is standard in such cases, pending an administrative review, Handy said.

Like the county’s other large hospitals, anyone entering Community Memorial’s emergency room entrance late in the evening only has access to the lobby and waiting room. Admitting staff are separated from the public by inch-thick bullet-resistant glass, and medical areas are behind locked doors.

The tighter security was put in place to comply with a state law enacted following a 1993 shooting at County-USC Medical Center, in which three doctors were critically wounded. The law requires hospitals to step up safety measures in emergency wards.

Ventura County Medical Center has three security guards on duty during the day, but fewer late at night.

“People have brandished weapons before, waved knives around, and we just take care of it,” said Pam Wells, nursing supervisor at the public hospital.

Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks recently completed a $6.5-million renovation and expansion of its emergency room and installed bullet-resistant glass throughout the entire admitting area.

“Every person needs to feel safe where they work,” said Los Robles spokeswoman Kris Carraway-Bowman. “We were advised to do that because that seems to be the way that new ERs are being designed in all parts of the country.”

While the largest hospitals in the county all have at least one security guard on duty 24 hours a day, none has armed guards and none use metal detectors. Such security measures are common at hospitals in Los Angeles and other major cities.

At Simi Valley Hospital, lead security officer James Hopkins said that while his facility does not arm its security force, it does require that security guards be registered with the state and have at least one year of experience.

The hospital has had a few incidents of patients getting violent in the emergency room waiting area, but they have been able to control it, Hopkins said. The Simi Valley police station is half a mile away and always responds within three to four minutes, he said.

An evaluation done at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard four years ago prompted that hospital to move its security headquarters closer to the emergency room, said H. Allen Hooper, medical director of emergency medical services.

As part of the evaluation, the hospital asked for feedback from medical staff and even patients. Many said they were anxious about the potential for violence in the emergency room. The result was a security office with a bullet-resistant picture window looking onto the waiting room and video cameras to record activities in other parts of the hospital, Hooper said.

Hospital officials also trained staff to diffuse potentially violent situations, he said.

“This can happen anywhere,” Hooper said. “We at St. John’s have taken all the precautions we can and we’re always looking for better ways.”

Saturday’s incident was the second violent situation of the night in a Southland hospital.

About 5 p.m., an off-duty city of Orange police officer allegedly brandished a handgun and threatened to shoot hospital workers at Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley.

The officer was unhappy with the hospital’s care of a family member, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Richard Thomas said. Police were investigating the incident Sunday but had not arrested or charged the officer.

Police are not releasing the officer’s name, but he was a recent graduate of the police academy and was still on one-year probation, said Orange Police Capt. Art Romo.

“We do take the allegations very seriously,” said Romo. “We are conducting our own internal investigation of the incident.”

In Ventura County, St. John’s Regional Medical Center experienced a violent incident in September 1997 when an Oxnard man, one of four gunshot victims, was arrested after he allegedly tried to run down a hospital security guard with his car.

Anthony Ramirez Jr., drove with the three others to the hospital for treatment of minor wounds. Ramirez allegedly tried to run down the guard in the emergency room parking lot, police said, but they did not know why.

In September 1999, a gunman distressed over the death of his mother opened fire inside Orange County’s West Anaheim Medical Center, killing three people and sending terrified patients diving for cover as he repeatedly shouted, “You killed my mother!”

Two men including a patient awaiting surgery subdued the suspect, Dung Trinh, 43, who was later arrested on suspicion of murder.

That same day, at Kaiser Permanente-Woodland Hills Medical Center, a 72-year-old woman walked into the administration area of the hospital and shot herself to death.

*

Staff writer Zanto Peabody contributed to this story.