Two nurses stabbed at L.A. County hospitals in separate incidents

Two on-duty nurses were stabbed in separate incidents at Los Angeles-area hospitals Sunday, leaving one of them hospitalized in critical condition, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.

The first stabbing occurred at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar at around 2 a.m., when a man entered the hospital, made his way past a weapons screening area and into the building. Sheriff’s deputies searching for him heard a scream that led them to the victim, a female nurse who’d been stabbed in the upper body. The nurse, whose name has not been released, is in critical condition.

Deputies recovered a knife at the scene and apprehended a suspect, Ramiro Carnalla, 26, of Los Angeles, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Several hours later, shortly after 9 a.m., a man walked into Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, passed through a weapons screening area and saw a group of nurses, one of whom he stabbed in the ear, according to the Sheriff’s Department. A pencil believed to have been used in the attack was found at the scene.

The Harbor nurse, whose name has also not been released, was able to flee and has been treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

The suspect was identified as Thomas Robert Fredette, 38, of Santee. He was taken into custody and booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

[For the Record, 8:35 a.m. PDT April 21: A previous version of this post misspelled Carnella’s first name as Romiro instead of Ramiro.]

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kurt.streeter@latimes.com

Twitter: @kurtstreeter

Times staff writer Adolfo Flores contributed to this report.