Kendra Thompson Sasser(GENEVA, Ill.) — A prison inmate who was being treated at an Illinois hospital managed to gain control of an officer’s weapon and take a hospital employee hostage, according to officials.
A spokesperson for the Kane County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect was confined to a small area of the emergency room at Delnor Hospital in Geneva, Illinois, and hostage negotiators were at the scene surrounding the suspect.
The emergency room was evacuated and the rest of the hospital was operating as normal, the official said.
Virgene Galloway told ABC News she was registering for the ER when she was escorted from the lobby to the bathroom, and told to get into a stall and lock it. She said she heard a nurse yell, “Code silver,” which she knew, because she works at a hospital, meant “active shooter.”
“There were a few people shaken up by it, so I was just trying to calm the person next to me,” Galloway said to ABC News.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.