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Published Thursday, March 12, 2009 | 9:41 a.m.
Updated Thursday, March 12, 2009 | 2:08 p.m.
Sun Archives
- Hospital ER reopens after fatal police shooting (3-11-2009)
Hospital shooting
The 48-year-old man shot and killed by two Henderson police officers on Wednesday in a hospital emergency room has been identified as Charles Bradley Campbell of Henderson, the Clark County Coroner's Office said today.
The two officers who fired the shots have been placed on paid administrative leave and have not been identified.
An armed man walked into the emergency room of St. Rose Dominican Hospital-Siena Campus about 1 a.m. Wednesday with his hands in his pockets, telling a nurse he wanted to kill himself, police said.
Whether the man fired the handgun first or the police shot him after he refused to surrender the weapon is under investigation, said Keith Paul, a spokesman for the Henderson Police Department.
Two officers encountered the man in the emergency room as he held a handgun. The officers ordered the man to drop the gun, but he refused, police said. He then pointed the gun at officers, police said.
Both officers fired and struck the man, who was treated by emergency room medical personnel, but he died. None of the patients or hospital staff in the emergency room area at the time of the incident were injured.
The names of the officers involved in the shooting will be released Friday, 48 hours from the time of the incident, per department policy, Paul said.
Henderson Police Chief Jutta Chambers said Thursday that the officers were placed in a “very tough situation,” but they reacted exactly as trained.
“It’s a reminder of the challenges that we face each day as members of this organization,” Chambers said.
Four officers responded to the scene and two of them went inside the building, authorities said.
“Our officers have done a lot of training over the past 10 years on how to deal with an ‘active shooter’ — someone who is inside a building, in a confined space with other people around,” Chambers said.
She said each officer in the Henderson Police Department undergoes extensive training and preparation for these types of scenarios.
“They reacted to the situation before them exactly the way we would expect them to,” Chambers said.
About 30 patients and hospital employees were evacuated from the emergency room as the crisis unfolded, but because of the speed of the events, not everyone was able to get out, Chambers said.
“There were several other civilians in that room,” she said. “Thankfully, no one else was injured. It was a very tough situation.”
Your article states: "Officers shot and killed a 48-year-old man inside the hospital's emergency room shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday after the man walked into the room with a gun threatening to kill himself, police said." That is NOT true.
The truth is "officers shot and killed a 48-year-old man inside the hospital's emergency room shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday after the man who had walked into the room with a gun threatening to kill himself, RAISED HIS GUN AND POINTED IT AT OFFICERS.
There is a world of difference in the perception of the police shooting a man because he threatened to kill himself or in shooting a man because he pointed a gun at police officers.
I do realize that the following paragraph in the article explains "he pointed his gun at officers", but there are many, many people who never read anything more of an article except the first paragraph or so, and formulate their opinion from partial information.
So much of our society hates the law enforcement community that we don't have to offer them more ammunition.........
I see things much differently.
The police officers involved in shootings have only seconds and sometimes not even that much time to decide if lethal force is necessary. Too often we read news involving officers killed in the line of duty by gunmen. I would say that the time these fallen heroes gave the gunmen exceeded seconds or microseconds. Also, I believe that common sense people in society appreciate the efforts of a few who defend us from crooks and law offenders.