The 46-year-old patient, whose name has yet to be released, was in a treatment room on the 14th floor of the hospital with his wife prior to the shooting. St. Louis Police Lt. Col. Rochelle D. Jones said the patient pushed his way out of the room and flashed two knives he had in his pockets, according to the report.
Security guards were called to the scene and immediately ordered the patient to drop the weapons. He refused and both officers fired their weapons, killing the man. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
“You have your staff and you also have other people who are there who are being treated, so it was very dangerous and it could have been a lot worse,” Ms. Jones told the St. Louis Dispatch.
St. Louis police said the man was “flourishing” the weapons, but it was not immediately clear if he was threatening the security officers, hospital workers or other patients. It was also not clear why the man pulled out the knives. Police declined to say why the patient was being treated.
The security guards are being questioned as part of an ongoing investigation.
The patient was shot around 10:30 a.m. at the hospital’s Center of Advanced Medicine, which includes a cancer center and other medical offices.
A spokeswoman for the hospital, Kara Price Shannon, is directing all questions about the incident to the police department, according to the report.
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