Records: Premier Health Public Safety raised concerns of slain security guard after April incident
Premier Health Public Safety and Merchants Security previously expressed concerns over the fitness of the security guard shot and killed by an inmate at Miami Valley Hospital this week after an April incident.
Darrell Holderman, 78, was guarding a Montgomery County Jail inmate, Brian Booth, at the hospital Wednesday morning when the inmate overpowered him, stole his service weapon and fatally shot him in the back of the neck, according to Dayton Police. Booth used Holderman’s weapon to shoot and kill himself outside of the hospital’s emergency department entrance.
An incident report obtained by News Center 7 through a public records request to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office detailed an incident from April 2022 that caused Premier Health to raise concerns about Holderman’s fitness for the job.
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Sergeant Dalton Bybee, of the health network’s department of safety, detailed how he was dispatched to the fifth floor of Miami Valley Hospital on April 28 in regards to an incident involving a Merchants Security Guard.
Bybee said a guard, identified as Holderman, escorted a prisoner admitted to the hospital to the restroom. Holderman noted that the prisoner was in shackles at the time.
The sergeant reported that Holderman admitted to briefly turning away from the prisoner as they occupied the restroom in order to call and check in with his supervisor. He said when turned back around, he observed a man with an IV pole walking down the hallway near the HUC desk.
The report stated that Holderman thought the man was the prisoner he was assigned to watch. He approached the man and asked which room he was in and where was supposed to be. When the man turned around and responded to him, Holderman soon realized that it wasn’t the prisoner.
Bybee later spoke with a Patient Care Technician who witnessed the incident. She told the sergeant that she was “slightly distraught” over the incident.
The witness recounted the same series of events as Holderman, but stated that he approached the mistaken man with “his cane in his left hand and his right hand was near his duty weapon.”
The report stated that both Bybee and Holderman said they would both being reaching out to Merchants regarding the incident.
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On April 29, the hospital passed the report along to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, who then contacted the general manager of Merchants Security.
In a response to the Sheriff’s office, General Manager Nathan Burchfield said in an email that it appeared that Holderman was “getting up in age and it’s time to start backing him down.”
“Such a hard thing to tell someone but it’s the reality of it. He’s such a hard worker but unfortunately his age and health are catching up to him,” Burchfield said.
News Center 7 reached out to Premier Health for comment on the incident. They referred us to Merchants Security for answers to our questions.
News Center 7 has also reached out to Merchants regarding the incident and are awaiting a response.
