Homicide

RISKAlert Case Study #841 – Physician Shot & Killed in Metairie

Posted on March 27, 2016 3:10 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

Dateline: March 25, 2016 – New Orleans, Louisiana

A local Doctor was shot and killed by a patient while he treated others in his office near East Jefferson General Hospital in New Orleans yesterday.

The 73-year old shooter walked into the doctor’s office, and killed the doctor with a single shot to the head. He then ran out of the office and into a Wendy’s restaurant. Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies were nearby and they responded and chased the shooter into a nearby Wendy’s restaurant, where the shooter killed himself by putting the gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger.

The doctor, 75-year old Dr. Elbert Goodier, a urologist, was treating patients at the time of the shooting. Colleagues said that Dr. Goodier was a very kind and popular physician. The shooter’s family said that the shooter had been treated by Dr. Goodier in the past. While the shooter did not have a criminal background, his family said that he had suffered from mental illness in the past.

Dr. Goodier had practiced for 50 years in the New Orleans area, according to East Jefferson General Hospital.

According to Wendy’s employees, a woman was placing her order when
the shooter pulled the trigge WendysShooter-NOLA r as the deputies advanced on him. The man’s body remained inside of Wendy’s more than an hour after the shootings. Yellow police tape cordoned off the parking lot and the hospital’s exit lanes. Some workers and patrons were also still in the building as of 4 p.m., speaking with
investigators. Outside, other workers, concerned relatives and onlookers watched.

This type of shooting, the Baby Boomer Shooter, is the second attack on a urologist, and one in an increasing number of seniors who attack their physicians. Another shooter killed his urologist in Reno, Nevada and injured two others before taking his own life. The shooter said had struggled for 3 years with ailments resulting from a botched vasectomy, according to messages he posted on an online support group and a law enforcement investigation.

Lesson Learned :

While doctors have not been a target in the past, they have been shot and killed recently by patients unhappy with medical results. All hospitals and medical offices should review their access controls systems, based on the increasing, and alarming rate of attacks on healthcare workers.

Stay Alert and make sure to subscribe to RISKAlerts
Sign Up at: caroline@riskandsecurityllc.com

Inmate Patient Takes Sheriff’s Deputy’s Gun, Shoots Deputy and Kills Himself

Posted on August 25, 2014 10:23 am by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

Prisoner Grabs Deputy’s Gun at a West Union, Iowa Hospital, Shoots Deputy & Turns Firearm on Himself.

At Palmer Lutheran Health Center, a full service hospital in West Union, Iowa, an inmate who was brought from Fayette County Jail on Saturday morning, August 23, at 8:30 am, grabbed the County Sheriff Deputy’s gun and demanded he be released, the deputy used a non-lethal device on the inmate, who then shot the deputy at close range. The inmate then killed himself with the handgun.

The deputy, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was shot in the stomach, but was treated and released at the site of the incident. The inmate, still unidentified, grabbed the gun when one of his hands was released for his medical treatment.

LESSONS LEARNED:

1. Forensic patients (prisoners) know it’s easier to escape
from the hospital room, or hospital bed, than it is to
escape from the County Jail! Security should be
present to support law enforcement. One deputy is
a minimum. Deputy with security officer present is
better.

2. Wearing a bulletproof vest saved the deputy’s life during the incident. Security officers should
consider having bulletproof vests available when dealing with this type of patient.

According to research in the Journal of Injury Prevention, “Shootings in U.S. Hospitals 2000 – 2011,
in 23% of shootings within hospital emergency departments, the weapon was a security officer’s gun taken by the perpetrator. https://www.llis.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/FA-gdkelen.pdf

IAHSS (International Association of Hospital Safety and Security), has policy guidelines for security departments that deal with forensic (inmate) patients. IAHSS members can access the Healthcare Security: Basic Industry Guidelines at www.iahss.org.

Security managers and hospital management need to make sure that All Hospital Staff including Clinical Staff
Are Warned to Use Extreme Caution When Working with or Near Forensic Patients!

RISKAlert® is a publication of Risk & Security LLC at www.riskandsecurity.com

TO SIGN UP FOR RISKAlerts, send your email address to info@riskandsecurityllc.com

Copyright, 2014-2015 – Risk & Security LLC

Psychiatrist Shoots Mental Patient who Killed His Caseworker at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital

Posted on July 25, 2014 7:07 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

Psychiatrist Draws Gun in Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital and Shoots the Mental Health Patient who Killed his Caseworker by Shooting Her in the Face. Witnesses near the scene reported hearing screaming and gunfire, as suspect and mental health patient Richard Plotts confronted his caseworker, Theresa Hunt, and then drew his gun, and killed her. Another bullet grazed a doctor, adjacent to the scene, but the doctor had a gun of his own, and he shot Plotts 3 times in the torso.

The doctor, identified as Lee Silverman, was treated was treated for a head wound and released after being taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The shooter, Richard Plotts, of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, who had a long criminal record, was undergoing surgery Thursday night at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. If he survives, he will be charged Friday with murder, said Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan.

There is a Lesson Here — KEEP POTENTIAL SHOOTERS WITH WEAPONS OUT OF HOSPITALS.

A is for Access Control! Once a potential shooter brings a weapon into a hospital, everything is much more difficult to control. Keep them out.

Weapons should be checked at the hospital entry points and no-weapons signage should clearly indicate that weapons are not allowed, and that should be followed up with either stand-alone, or wand metal detectors which give staff members a initial level of protection.

usa-shooting-pennsylvania

Bernice Ho, a spokeswoman for Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, said Thursday it was against hospital policy for anyone other than security guards to carry weapons, so there are questions about why this doctor disregarded the policy, although Donald Molineux, chief of the Yeadon Police Department, said “If Silverman returned fire and wounded Plotts, he without a doubt saved lives.”

District Attorney Whelan described how the meeting among Plotts, Silverman, and Hunt abruptly took a violent turn. Plotts and Hunt went to Silverman’s third-floor office shortly before 2:30 p.m., Whelan said. Plotts was apparently armed, and people near the room soon heard shouting.

Concerned, a hospital employee “actually opened the door, saw him pointing a gun at the doctor,” Whelan said. The worker shut the door quietly and immediately called 911. Plotts then opened fire. According to Whelan, he shot Hunt two times in the face. The psychiatrist then ducked under his desk, retrieved his gun, and came up shooting, striking Plotts three times.

Keep Weapons Out of the Hospital to Dramatically Reduce Violent Incidents!

Aventura Hospital Patient Strangled in his Room on July 1st,, 2014

Posted on July 2, 2014 4:09 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

RiskAlert INCIDENT REPORT 565 –

Patient Strangled in Aventura Hospital, Florida

32-year old Behavioral Health Patient found Strangled to Death
in his Hospital Room

32-year old Alex Paloumbis diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia at a
young age, had been in the hospital for two weeks. He was on the fourth-floor psychiatric
ward when he was attacked by the patient in the next bed.

The other patient in the room, identified by police as Alexander T. Jackson, 31, was
charged with first-degree murder and remained in Miami-Dade County Jail on Monday
with no bond. Jackson, who is homeless, was admitted to the hospital around 10 a.m
Thursday, the day of the murder, which occurred about 3 p.m. the same day. He was
put in the same room with Rios, according to the arrest report.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Behavioral health patients require extra controls including
live, continual camera monitoring, use of appropriate
medication and possible use of restraints.

Patients may pose a danger to others, as they did in this tragedy,
and should be under continuous supervision.

Rios was last seen alive at about 2:45 p.m. Thursday. At 3:36., a hospital
housekeeper found him face down on the floor. “The defendant admitted
to killing the victim by strangling him with his hands and a bedsheet,”
according to the report.

While administrators declined to comment on the security procedures at the
hospital, IAHSS (the International Association for Healthcare Security & Safety)
President Marilyn Hollier said psychiatric floors generally have lock-down
procedures, metal detectors, seclusion rooms and cameras at the access
points. It is not known whether any of these security controls existed at the
hospital. Hollier also stressed that security officers need specialized
training to deal with behavioral health patients.

Aventura Hospital, located near I-95 north of Miami, Florida, has a large
behavioral health unit with 46 beds. The victim’s mother said her son was
never violent. “He never, never, never raised his voice,” Paloumbis said.
The mother was summoned to the hospital Thursday. She was told come
quickly and then was ushered into a room where police officers and detectives
were waiting. Though she had limited English skills, she understood that
her son was dead and initially thought that he may have died from a heart attack
or other natural causes.

Stay Situationally Aware and Continuously Monitor Behavioral Health Patients!