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Domestic dispute ends in fatal hospital shooting

Hospital Safety Connection, January 13, 2005

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Rush Foundation Hospital officials are evaluating security after a man was shot and killed this week at the Meridian, MS, facility, the Clarion Ledger reported.

Somehow a man got through the hospital entrance with a gun and killed another man in what police are calling domestic dispute retaliation.

Timothy Jenkins, 30, was shot and killed by one of his mother's relatives while waiting near the intensive care unit. Jenkins mother and father were earlier admitted to the hospital for treatment after shooting each other in a domestic dispute.

Jenkins stepbrother was later arrested and charged with the crime.

Since the shooting, hospital officials haven't made any changes to security.

"We have a pretty sophisticated surveillance system to monitor all the entrances, but like Sunday, some instances you can't control," Donnie Smith, vice president of human resources, public relations, and marketing for Rush, told the Ledger. "They are looking at the security system, and it's an ongoing thing. We look at it anyway, not just in response to Sunday, but this will heighten the awareness of it."

Only the hospital's emergency room entrance had metal detectors.

"The first conclusion we came to was we need to do something to improve the way we monitor traffic flow in and out of entrances and exits," Eric Barber, chief operating officer for nearby Riley Hospital, who met with his hospital's safety committee after the shooting to discuss improving security techniques at the hospital, told the Ledger. "Regular visitors don't have to sign in, and we have about 400 people here on a regular day."

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