Police were Called to Portland Hospital - Man with a Gun was Threatening Hospital Workers! Security Officer was Fatally Shot & Other Staff Injured!

RISKAlert # 1755 July 24, 2023 Portland, Oregon

Police were Called to Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center when Staff Said ?that a Man with a Gun was Threatening Hospital Workers! ?When Officers Arrived, ?Shots Were Fired & Security Officer Bobby Smallwood was Fatally Wounded

“Officers believed this had the possibility of being an active shooter incident, so they treated the incident as a mass shooting, and law enforcement converged on the hospital from all over Portland in a full-city response to address the shooter, assist with a possible mass casualty event, and evacuate those in harm’s way,” the Portland Police Bureau in a statement.

Hospital staff and patients were told to shelter in place as officers searched for the shooter. He was located hours later in a van in suburban Gresham and was fatally shot by three Portland police officers, the Portland Police said.?Smallwood, who was 44 and originally from Florida, was attended to by staff and then taken to another hospital with the highest-level trauma care, where he died.

“Please pray for my family as we lost my cousin Bobby Smallwood yesterday as he was protecting the birthing center at a hospital,” his cousin Rachel Milligan Moreno, from Brandon, Florida, wrote on Facebook on Sunday. “Our hearts are broken.”??The gunman’s name was PoniaX Kane Calles, a 33-year-old who previously went by the name Reginald Kane Jackson station, according to media reports.

Allen told reporters that it is especially tragic that deadly gunfire erupted at Good Sam, as the hospital is known, which he said should be a place of safety. The Oregon Nurses Association said Monday that violence directed at health care workers has increased at an alarming rate. “It is the responsibility of every health care system and hospital administration in Oregon to do everything in their power to protect the safety of their patients and frontline caregivers," the union said. The family birth center said patients are given private birthing suites. No alcohol, recreational drugs or firearms are allowed.

“We care deeply about your family's safety,” the narrator says in a video, which shows a screen with multiple images from security cameras. When asked Monday about security measures, the hospital declined to describe them, saying in a statement that staffers are “grief-stricken.” “We are focused on providing factual information to our employees and supporting those deeply impacted by this tragic event," the statement said, promising to provide additional information later this week.

POSSIBLE SOLUTION:?The hospital didn’t have any type of metal detection program, which let the shooter enter the hospital with an undetected gun.?According to the IAHSS (International Association of Hospital Safety and Security), less than one third of hospitals use metal detectors!

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RISKAlert #1755 #PortlandHospitalShooting