A certified nursing assistant was arrested early Monday morning after he was accused of killing a coworker and instigating a shootout with officers, Pennsylvania police say.
Philadelphia officers received a call just after midnight of an active shooter on the ninth floor of Jefferson University Hospital, police commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in a news briefing livestreamed by WPVI. Police said they soon learned a 43-year-old CNA had been shot by a coworker, who then fled in a U-Haul van.
Just over an hour later, a person flagged down officers and said a man wearing scrubs was seen carrying a gun and possibly firing shots into the air, Outlaw said in the briefing also livestreamed by WCAU. As four officers responded to the location about 4 miles away from the hospital, the suspect fired at police, according to the commissioner.
Two 6-year veterans of the police department were injured in the shooting — a 30-year-old who was struck in the right elbow and a 32-year-old who was shot in the nose. Both officers are expected to survive, Outlaw said.
All four officers returned fire, striking the hospital worker in the upper body and neck. He was arrested and taken to a separate hospital, where he is expected to survive, the police commissioner said.
The man, described as a 55-year-old CNA at the hospital, was wearing body armor and carrying multiple weapons, Outlaw said.
The 43-year-old CNA was pronounced dead soon after being shot inside the hospital, Outlaw said. It’s unclear what led to the shooting and police were not sure if the suspect was working at the time of the incident.
“We do believe that other employee was targeted,” Outlaw said in the news briefing, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. “The reasons why, at this point we still don’t know.”
The identities of the deceased nursing assistant and two injured officers have not been publicly disclosed.
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