Four people dead in shooting at Chicago hospital

This city’s hospitals have grown all too accustomed to receiving victims of gunshot wounds from unrelenting violence on the streets, but on Monday, one hospital became the scene of a shooting that left four people dead and sent health workers and patients alike scrambling for safety.

As a frantic scene played out inside and outside Mercy Hospital, south of Chicago’s downtown, four people were shot and killed, Superintendent Eddie Johnson of the Chicago Police said. Among the dead, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, were a police officer, a doctor and a pharmacy technician. The gunman, who was not identified, was also killed; officials said they were uncertain whether the fatal shot had come from the police or by his own hand.

Most of the victims had yet to be publicly named by authorities, but police said the officer killed was Samuel Jimenez, a father of three who had joined the Chicago Police Department last year and recently finished his probationary period.

“Our first goal was to start grabbing patients out of the rooms,” said Clarence Smith, a hospital worker who described evacuating four patients, including one in a wheelchair, during the chaotic and frightening minutes that followed a cascade of gunshots.

Officials said that the shooting began in the parking lot of the hospital just before 3:30 pm local time. A man began arguing with a female doctor with whom he had had a relationship. When someone intervened, the man lifted his shirt and showed a handgun, Johnson said.

Seconds later, the man shot and killed the doctor and fired at arriving police officers, Johnson said. The man then ran inside the hospital, followed by police officers. For several minutes inside, as witnesses ducked and screamed, he exchanged gunfire with officers.

Johnson said the man killed Jimenez and a pharmacy worker who had stepped off an elevator and who was not involved in the original dispute. Amid the gunfire, a second police officer’s holster was damaged by a bullet, though the officer was not injured.

“Those officers that responded today saved a lot of lives,” said Johnson, who said his department had trained for active-shooter situations at hospitals. “We just don’t know how much damage he was prepared to do.”

© 2018 New York Times News Service