Doctor, 2 nurses stabbed at Encino Hospital Medical Center near Los Angeles; suspect arrested
LOS ANGELES — A man stabbed a doctor and two nurses inside a Southern California hospital Friday before barricading himself inside the facility, authorities said. He remained inside a room for hours before police arrested him.
The Los Angeles Police Department got a call around 3:50 p.m. about a possible stabbing at Encino Hospital Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley, Officer Jeff Lee told USA TODAY.
LAPD identified the suspect as 35-year-old Ashkan Amirsoleymani. He was booked on three counts of attempted murder with bail set at $3 million, LAPD said on Saturday.
Amirsoleymani had parked his car in the middle of a street and went to the emergency room, where he asked for treatment for anxiety before stabbing the doctor and nurses, authorities said.
All three victims were transported to a local trauma center in critical condition, Nicholas Prange, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, told USA TODAY.
All three were later listed in stable condition at Dignity Health Northridge Hospital Medical Center, the Associated Press reported.
Helicopter footage from taken by local TV stations showed one injured employee in blue medical scrubs being wheeled out of the hospital on a stretcher. The front of the hospital was blocked with yellow caution tape and about a dozen emergency vehicles.
UPDATE: Two nurses and a doctor were injured during the incident and are receiving medical treatment at this time.
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) June 4, 2022
Amirsoleymani remained inside a room in the hospital for about four hours as SWAT team members tried to unsuccessfully to negotiate with him before he was finally arrested, police said.
He was taken to another hospital for treatment of self-inflicted injuries to his arms, authorities said.
Hamilton said the suspect had a lengthy criminal record, including two arrests last year for battery of a police officer and resisting arrest.
The attack comes just two days after a gunman killed four people and then himself at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The assailant got inside a building on the Saint Francis Hospital campus with little trouble, just hours after buying an AR-style rifle, authorities said.
A MEDICAL NIGHTMARE: Mass shooting at Tulsa clinic is just the latest deadly assault on US medical workers
A TULSA SHOOTING VICTIM DIED BARRICADING A DOOR: His wife watched their 54-year marriage end without a goodbye.
The man killed his surgeon, whom he blamed for his continuing pain following a recent back operation, and three other people.
The violence in medical settings is something researchers have warned about in recent years: "The risk of workplace violence is a serious occupational hazard for nurses and other health care workers," a recent study by National Nurses United found. "Countless acts of assault, battery, aggression, and threats of violence that routinely take place in health care settings demonstrate a frightening trend of increasing violence faced by health care workers throughout the country."
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Encino, California, hospital stabbing: 3 injured, suspect arrested
