At Miami Valley Hospital, a shooting took place on Wednesday morning. Dayton police said that a Montgomery County Jail inmate died while a security guard got injured.
He was under medical care in the hospital’s emergency department when he took an armed security guard’s gun and shot the officer, according to Maj. Brian Johns of Dayton police.
“The inmate was able to get the gun away from the armed security guard and shot the security guard and then shot himself in the parking lot behind the emergency room,” Johns said. “At this time the inmate is deceased from his gunshot wound that was self-inflicted.”
The security guard’s condition was not recorded. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office uses a private security guard to secure prisoners, according to Johns. He is not a deputy officer.
When the inmate arrived at the hospital around 1 a.m., the guard was assigned as emergency security, said Johns.
Mike Uhl, the president of Miami Valley Hospital, said that the hospital is secure and safe. All routine operations at the hospital were halted for a time while emergency department services were redirected, but they have now resumed as normal.
The emergency department was the only part of Miami Valley Healthcare’s campus affected, according to a hospital representative. All the hospital staff members are safe and sound.
“It’s a tragedy,” Johns said. “Thankfully more people weren’t hurt.”
The convict was incarcerated on a probation violation at the time of the shooting. The police are investigating what caused the incident and how the prisoner acquired access to the guard’s firearm.
“We don’t know exactly how he was able to get ahold of the security guard’s gun,” said Johns. “We just know about 9:45 this morning that’s when this actually happened.”
Inmates are generally handcuffed at the hospital, according to him. However, due to medical treatments, this may vary. On a separate matter, officers were already at the facility.
The hospital has its own campus police department, according to Uhl, however it is not uncommon for Miami Valley deputies or Dayton policemen to be present in the emergency department due to the nature of its operations.
We will keep you updated as new information becomes available.