Photo: The Canadian Press
This aerial image taken from a video provided by ABC7 Los Angeles shows emergency personnel outside the Encino Hospital Medical Center, where a suspect stabbed several people and barricaded himself in Encino Hospital , California, Friday, June 3, 2022. (ABC7 Los Angeles) Los Angeles via AP)
A man stabbed a doctor and two nurses inside an emergency room at a Southern California hospital on Friday and remained inside a room for hours before police arrested him, authorities said. .
The man was admitted to Encino Hospital Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley shortly before 4 p.m., Los Angeles police officer Drake Madison said.
The man had parked the car in the middle of a street and went to the emergency room, where he sought treatment for anxiety before stabbing the doctor and nurses, authorities said.
Firefighters said three victims were taken to a critical trauma center. Police later said one was in critical condition and was operated on.
All three were later included in stable condition at Dignity Health Northridge Hospital Medical Center.
The first floor of Encino Hospital and some nearby offices were evacuated, police said.
“We have moved patients out of the danger zone,” LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton told a news conference.
There was no evidence that the man knew the victims, Hamilton added.
The man remained inside a hospital room for about four hours while members of the SWAT team tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with him before he was finally arrested, police said.
He was taken to another hospital for self-inflicted injuries to his arms, authorities said.
The man’s name was not released immediately, but Hamilton said he had a long criminal history, including two arrests last year for assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.
Benjamin Roman, an ultrasound technician, told KNBC-TV that before the stabbing, he saw the man, who had a dog with him and could have been drugged because he looked anxious and was sweating.
After the hospital issued an “internal triage” code, Roman said he saw a doctor and a nurse who had been stabbed.
“The doctor looked like he was in pain,” he said. “There was a lot of blood and it looked like … I could have grabbed her abdomen.”
The attack comes just two days after a gunman killed four people and then himself at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The assailant entered a building on the campus of Saint Francis Hospital without any problems, just hours after buying an AR-style rifle, authorities said.
The man killed his surgeon and three other people in a doctor’s office. He blamed the doctor for his continued pain after a recent back surgery.