At about 3:50 p.m. Monday, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle CEO Rob Coleman walked into a meeting with the hospital’s chief nursing officer.
Within minutes, looking out the window, he saw Columbus Police Department units roll up outside the emergency room and block the road.
“We knew something was going on, we just didn’t know what. We started walking to the (ER), and we immediately knew that a Code Freeze was called,” Coleman said.
Just before 4 p.m., CPD responded to a shots-fired call in a BMH parking lot near the emergency room. Occupants of a vehicle shot into a dark gray SUV, injuring the four occupants in the SUV, Police Chief Joseph Daughtry said Tuesday. The suspects left the scene, and while Daughtry said officers have detained four “persons of interest” for questioning, no arrests were made by press time Tuesday evening.
Coleman said when the shooting began, hospital staff had initiated a “Code Freeze” shutdown of the entire hospital, and about five security officers began closing and locking all entrances except the emergency room, where police had already set up a perimeter, allowing additional patients to come in.
“We were protecting our staff and everybody that works here,” Coleman said. “As we got to the ER, everything was unfolding there, so we had all hands on deck here at the hospital. The four victims that were shot were there. We had surgeons coming down, law enforcement was crawling through the hospital and on our property. We had a great response from all the staff.”
Coleman, along with patients and staff, were locked in patient rooms or offices and waited for security and police officers armed with assault rifles to clear the building, going from hall to hall to ensure no one was harmed.
“Everybody basically just barricades themselves inside at whatever point they can find,” Coleman said.
Coleman said the shutdown went smoothly for all staff and patients, and everyone was secured in rooms within just a few minutes.
When the freeze was lifted around 5 p.m. hospital staff could move around freely and resume their regular jobs.
Coleman said even after the “Code Freeze” was lifted, no visitors were allowed to enter the hospital until 7 a.m. Tuesday.
“We lifted it after all was secure because we wanted to make sure that the shooter didn’t run to the hospital,” Coleman said. “We were told that the victims were apprehended, but we wanted to make sure from our own standpoint that everything was secure and safe.”
Coleman said hospital staff will also debrief soon to analyze BMH’s response and how it can more effectively handle future incidents.
Two of Monday’s shooting victims were airlifted to other hospitals, Daughtry said, and their conditions have not been released. Of the two treated at BMH, one has been released, while the other was still being held Tuesday for observation.
Daughtry said investigators plan to use hospital surveillance footage to identify the vehicle that fled, as well as determine how many shooters there were and hopefully identify them.
“We got some pretty good leads and we’re still working,” he said.
Daughtry said the four victims are not considered suspects, but he does plan to interview them once they are healed.
“Our main priority is their health right now,” Daughtry said.
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