TTAG reader RN writes:
There was a man shot at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA) this morning (1/20/15). I first found out about this while checking my work e-mail around 1430. (I work at a different hospital). There were reports on the news on the way home. From what I can determine now, a man went to one of the clinics, asked for a doctor by name, and shot him at close range. The building was put in lockdown. Police found the suspect, apparently dead by his own hand. The victim is said to be in critical condition. The email from my hospital’s president was timed at 1313 (it is now 1613). From his letter . . .
Boston Police assure us that a suspect is in custody, and there is no further threat to the Longwood Medical Area.
From an ABC News reports, timed 1353.
Police soon found a man matching the shooting suspect’s description dead in an examining room of what they believe to be a “self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
I guess that a dead guy can be in custody.
More from the president’s letter:
Please know that [hospital’s name] is safe and secure and that our Public Safety and Emergency Management teams are here to respond to this and other kinds of emergencies.
Well, my hospital may be “safe and secure”, but Brigham apparently wasn’t. It’s very reassuring to know that our PS and EM teams are there to respond—after the blood has been spilled. I’m pretty sure that the staff at the Brigham thought that their hospital was “safe and secure”, too.
This hospital (as, I suspect, most) are “gun-free zones” (in quote for the obvious reasons), as is the one that I just left last spring. The old hospital had an online inservice for the newly-developed “Code Silver” for an “active shooter” (“spree killer” perhaps would be better). The creators of the inservice get a bit of credit because they used the Texas Department of Public Safety video segment (screen shot above) and they lose that credit and more for the note at the bottom:
[our policy] forbids anyone except law enforcement officers from entering our facilities with a gun. This includes persons with concealed handgun permits.
So the cops who find your body will have guns. Good for them. Oh, more subtle inaccuracies from a MyFoxBoston.com piece, timed 1609:
One person is suffering life-threatening injuries and another is dead following a shooting inside Brigham & Women’s Hospital, according to authorities.
That certainly makes the situation clear. Or not.
A recurrent subject on TTAG has been carrying concealed at a workplace that forbids such acts. The most common response is: concealed is concealed. With what I carry in my normal street attire, I’m good there. In my unit, scrubs is the uniform of the day. I couldn’t carry the way I do in street clothes. So my piece is in my locker until I get changed to go home. Not that helpful should an intruder come into my unit. This event is making me re-think carrying during working hours.
One last item from the ABC News report:
The hospital did not have metal detectors, police said.
Ya think that that would have helped?