PORTLAND, Ore. — Legacy Health announced that it will be increasing security across all of its locations after the death of Bobby Smallwood at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Northwest Portland last weekend.
"Over the past week, our hearts have been heavy with grief and sadness in the wake of the tragic shooting that occurred," said Legacy President and CEO Kathryn Correia in a statement Saturday. "The emotional toll of this shooting continues to ripple across our 14,000 Legacy employees and into the communities we serve."
Correia said that over the past several days, senior leaders have worked on developing a comprehensive plan to further bolster Legacy's already strong safety policies and practices.
Legacy will be installing metal detectors at all of its hospitals that would require a bag search for all patients and visitors who enter. Some locations will see metal detectors as soon as Monday, Correia said.
"We will install bullet-slow film on the hospital main entrances and emergency departments and on glass in internal entrances," she said in the statement.
Additionally, lead security officers have been equipped with tasers. Correia said, Legacy will expand the use of tasers to all security officers once proper training and certification is completed.
Each Legacy hospital location will still have room to create unique solutions that best serve their facilities and communities.
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On the morning of July 22, a suspect allegedly shot and killed a security officer and injured a hospital employee in a shooting on the fifth floor of Good Samaritan Medical Center.
The injured security guard, Smallwood, 44, was transferred to a trauma center where he later died from his injures.
A few hours after leaving the medical center, police in Gresham stopped the suspect. There was a standoff and officers opened fire, shooting and killing the suspect. No officers were injured.
On Aug. 7, Portland police identified the three officers involved in the fatal shooting of the suspect as Justin Thurman, a 16-year veteran, Timothy Hoerauf, a 12-year veteran and Seth Wingfield, a seven-year veteran. The officers remain on administrative leave, per department policy.
Gresham police later confirmed the suspect's identity as PoniaX Kane Calles, previously known as Reginald Kane Jackson. The Oregonian reported that he had threatened hospital staff in the days before the shooting. A friend of Calles told KGW that he agreed to give the man a ride to Gresham, not realizing he was a shooting suspect until police caught up with them.
According to court documents obtained by KGW, Ashley Heil has three children with Calles: two young daughters, ages eight and one, and a newborn son whom she gave birth to last week at Good Samaritan. She was still in the hospital two days later when Calles allegedly shot and killed Smallwood.
"We have begun to develop a second phase of actions, and that work will continue over the next several months," said Correia.
The second phase will include making safety improvements at Legacy medical office buildings and community-based clinics.