Inmate steals officer's gun, takes nurses hostage at Illinois hospital

Police fatally shot an inmate being treated at Geneva, Ill.-based Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital Saturday after he stole a correctional officer's gun and held two nurses hostage, reports ABC 7 Chicago.

Here are six things to know.

1. Delnor Hospital clinicians were treating Tywon Salters, an inmate at Kane County Jail, for an undisclosed illness since May 8. He'd been in custody since April 11 after authorities charged him for possession of a stolen vehicle.

2. Around noon on May 13, Mr. Salters grabbed a correctional officer's handgun and held a nurse hostage in his third floor hospital room, according to Joseph McMahon, Kane County State's attorney.

3. Mr. McMahon told ABC 7 Chicago Mr. Salter traveled to the hospital's ground floor and stationed himself in a small room near the emergency department, where he took a second nurse hostage, after the first nurse escaped. Specific details are still under investigation and it is not clear how the first nurse got away from Mr. Salter, according to the report.

4. Once the hostage situation commenced, the hospital immediately evacuated the ED, discharging patients or sending them to other hospitals, a Delnor Hospital spokeswoman told ABC 7 Chicago. Hospital officials placed the rest of the facility on lockdown. No visitors were allowed, but all other hospital operations ran normally, according to the report.

5. After negotiators failed to coax Mr. Salters out of the room, SWAT officers entered the room about 4 p.m. and fatally shot him, Lt. Patrick Gengler of the Kane County Sheriff's Office, told ABC 7 Chicago.

6. Police said the two nurses held hostage were not severely injured, and one SWAT officer sustained a minor injury when a bullet hit his protective gear, according to the report. Delnor Hospital resumed normal ED operations at 6 p.m.

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