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Hospital gunman may have been targeting nurse
Posted
9-20-99 Anaheim, Calif. A gunman who authorities believe may have been targeting his mother's former nurse opened fire at West Anaheim Medical Center on Sept. 14, killing a certified nursing assistant, a pharmacist, and the director of maintenance. The alleged shooter, Dung Trinh, is thought to have entered the second floor of the hospital around 10:30 Tuesday morning carrying two .38 caliber snub-nose revolvers and about 50 additional rounds of ammunition, according to Anaheim police Sgt. Joe Vargas. Trinh reportedly shouted, "You killed my mother!" over and over during the attack. "He was using some misguided, irrational logic," said Vargas. "He believes they were responsible for her death, but we still don't know whether or not he was going after a particular individual or the whole unit." Debra Culver, director of public relations and marketing, said the hospital has since "enhanced security to the point where we feel our staff and visitors are comfortable." Grief counselors also are available for staff. Trinh's mother, Mot Trinh, was pronounced dead on arrival at nearby Anaheim Memorial Medical Center West in the early morning Sept. 14. The cause of death was heart failure. Police believe that after getting the news, Dung Trinh retrieved the two guns and went to the West Anaheim Medical Center, where Mot Trinh had hip replacement surgery in May, Vargas said. Hospital officials have said they do not believe she was mistreated but are reviewing her care. According to police records and eyewitness testimony, Trinh walked into the nurses reporting room where certified nursing assistant Marlene Mustaffa and the nurse believed to be the possible target were standing. Trinh allegedly fired two shots, the first fatally wounding Mustaffa. Authorities are not certain Trinh was targeting Mustaffa or the nurse. Police said at some point immediately before or after the shooting, a distress call was issued over a hospital communications system. After the first two shots, the attacker allegedly walked toward the elevators and an adjacent stairwell, waving the gun at bystanders. The distress call apparently prompted Vincent Rosetti, PharmD, director of the hospital pharmacy, to rush up the stairs to the second floor to offer help, Vargas said. Rosetti was fatally shot near the stairwell. Detectives believe Trinh then walked down the stairs toward the crowded hospital lobby, where he was met by maintenance director Ronald Robertson. Witnesses said Robertson rushed to the lobby to prevent the shooter from entering, holding the lobby's sliding doors shut in an attempt to keep him at bay. Trinh allegedly shot Robertson once and tried to move into the lobby, but Robertson tackled him and was shot twice more in the ensuing struggle. A patient and another hospital worker grabbed the gun after it fell to the floor and detained Trinh until police arrived. Robertson died from his wounds about two hours later. Although hospital shootings are rare, similar incidents in California include an April 1990 shooting rampage at the Mission Bay Memorial Hospital in San Diego, when Bradford Warren Powers Jr., distraught after his father's death, killed a nurse and a hospital trainee and wounded two others. In February 1993, Damacio Ybarra Torres, a former patient, shot and wounded three emergency room physicians at LAC-USC Medical Center, then took two hostages. "Hospitals aren't immune any longer from violence," said Victoria Carroll, MSN, RN, clinical instructor at the University of Northern Colorado and an expert on violence in the healthcare workplace. "We work in a situation where people have a high potential for violence; people are confused, people are combative, they have psychiatric problems, where there are people undergoing the tensest days of their lives, they're under a lot of stress. Healthcare workers are on the frontlines." According to the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, healthcare workers are among the most frequent victims of violence in the workplace. Though only five murders were reported in hospitals in 1997, there are about six incidents of physical and sexual assault per hospital each year. Trinh has been charged with three counts of murder with special circumstances and one count of attempted murder. He was assigned a public defender Sept. 16 and will be arraigned in one month. He is being held without bail at the Orange County Jail until then.
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