Apr 16, 2009 9:25 pm US/Pacific
3 Dead In Long Beach Hospital Rampage
2 Victims And Alleged Shooter Identified
LONG BEACH (CBS) ―
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A man shot two co-workers before turning the gun on himself at a Long Beach hospital.
CBS
A hospital employee at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center fatally shot two co-workers and then killed himself Thursday, police said.
Police Chief Anthony Batts said the gunfire erupted just before noon at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.
All the victims were men who worked together in the hospital's pharmacy.
Earlier reports said a man killed his wife in a domestic violence situation but those reports were erroneous.
Early reports also said the suspected gunman, Mario Ramirez, 50, of Alhambra was fearing a layoff next month. But a hospital spokeswoman Thursday evening denied the hospital had any plans for layoffs.
At Ramirez's home in Alhambra, his wife, Lydia, told her two sons the news about their father late Thursday, said Eva Reyes, Lydia Ramirez's sister. She declined to give more details about Ramirez or the family.
Neighbor Gina Marquez, 41, described Ramirez as a family man who was quiet and polite. He would often go jogging with his wife, she said.
"You never heard a peep from that house. It's unreal," Marquez said. "I can't imagine what state of mind he would have been in to do something like that."
Batts said officers responding to the shooting found one victim inside the hospital and then discovered a second victim outside, on the north side of the hospital outside the emergency room.
The two dead co-workers were identified as Kelly Hales, 56, of Redondo Beach and Hugo Bustamante, 46, of Cypress.
Both were taken to the emergency room; one was dead and the other was critical. The critical patient succumbed to his injuries hours after the shooting.
The suspect was found dead near the second victim, he said.
Diana Hendel, the hospital's chief executive officer said, "Our first priority was to ensure that our patients were safe and well cared for and I can assure that our patients are well cared for and are completely safe."
Hendel said the victims' families were receiving counseling through the hospital's chaplain service.
City gas department worker Dave Chamberlain said he heard shots and then saw a man waving a gun outside the hospital shoot himself.
"We heard five shots and we took cover as well, and then ... we could see a man with a gun pointed at himself," he said.
A woman, Charity Perez, said her husband, a hospital valet, knew the gunman and identified him as a worker at a pharmacy.
Laura Harris said she saw the shooter walk up, pull a gun and shoot a hospital employee in the leg.
"Then the young man fell and then he stood over him and shot a couple more times. Then he (the shooter) put the gun up under his chin," and shot himself, she said.
A youth, Justin Hawkins, said doctors got people into rooms during the shooting before police arrived.
"The doctors did the best job possible," he said. "They made us feel safe, they got us in the rooms as fast as possible, making sure nobody was in the hallways, making sure everyone was fine. And then the cops showed up really fast."
The approximately 460-bed hospital is one of six health care facilities in Southern California operated by the not-for-profit MemorialCare system, run by Memorial Health Services.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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