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Man killed by police after threatening to blow himself up inside hospital

Healthcare Security Weekly, March 24, 2008

A man in a wheelchair, who went into a Boulder, CO hospital and claimed he had a bomb, died after police shot him in the chest.

The man had threatened to blow himself up after going into the lobby by the glass doors to the emergency department at the Boulder Community Hospital on March 17 and calling police. The 32-year-old man told police he had a detonator device hooked up to an oxygen tank he had with him, reported 9 News in Denver.

Police negotiated with the man for several hours. Authorities moved patients to the east end of the hospital where they considered them safe, and placed the 200-bed hospital into lockdown, the TV station reported. When the man tried to leave the lobby area and enter the hospital, police hit him with several rounds of less-than-lethal ammunition, which did not stop him.

A member of a SWAT team then fired from a sniper rifle and hit the man once in the chest, the TV station reported. The man underwent surgery at the hospital but died later that night. Police removed a device and were able to detonate it safety. Investigators determine it did not contain explosives.

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