A person suspected of stabbing a doctor and two nurses at an Encino hospital before barricading in a room at the facility for several hours was taken into custody Friday night, according to authorities.
LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton confirmed that the suspect was in custody. In footage from KCBS-TV Channel 2 around 8 p.m., armored SWAT officers are seen wheeling someone on a gurney out of the hospital and into the back of an ambulance as Los Angeles firefighters stand nearby.
Officers were first called to Encino Hospital Medical Center in the 16200 block of Ventura Boulevard at 3:50 p.m., said Officer Drake Madison, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson.
Police sources and Elizabeth Nikels, a spokesperson for Prime Healthcare, which runs the hospital, confirmed that the victims were a doctor and two nurses.
The victims are being treated at Dignity Health Northridge Hospital Medical Center and are stable, said Christina Zicklin, a hospital spokesperson.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore said around 5:30 p.m. that officers had cornered the suspect alone “in the area of the emergency room” at the Encino hospital.
“We’ve locked it down. We’ve isolated the individual,” he said.
Days before jury selection was set to start in the sex abuse trial of the head of La Luz del Mundo church, Naason Joaquin Garcia pleaded guilty to several charges.
SWAT officers entered the hospital around 5:25 p.m. The FBI was at the scene and offering assistance where needed, said agency spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.
A standoff between the suspect and police lasted for hours before the person was taken into custody.
Police did not know the motive for the attack, Moore said.
“We’re very mindful of what just occurred in Tulsa and what’s happened all across the country,” Moore said.
A gunman killed three employees and a patient Wednesday at a Tulsa, Okla., medical office, the latest in a series of recent mass shootings in the U.S.
Last week, 19 children and two teachers were killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 days earlier, a gunman killed 10 people in a racially motivated attack at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y.
“Law enforcement, as the rest of the public, is mindful of this spasm that we’ve seen of these horrific tragedies, and the department is committed to ensuring that we are doing everything we can to ensure the safety of the public and prevent these horrible attacks,” Moore said.
Authorities haven’t released the suspect’s identity; however, Hamilton said the person is known to police and has an arrest record.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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