Illinois Hospital Standoff Ends With Fatal Shooting Of Armed Inmate And Freed Hostages


A standoff at an Illinois hospital ended with the fatal shooting of an inmate who stole a gun of the correction’s officer who was guarding him and took a nurse hostage. The Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital is located in the northern region of Illinois in Geneva.

Hostage negotiations with the inmate identified as Tywon Salters, 21, broke down several hours into the Illinois hospital standoff. The North Aurora Police Department SWAT team rapidly moved inside the Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital. Salters was holding a woman hostage when the special law enforcement team made the decision to move on the armed inmate. Geneva is located about 40 miles west of Chicago, MSN reported.

Kane County Sheriff’s Office representative Patrick Gengler said one officer shot and killed Tywon Salters. The Illinois standoff began shortly after noon on Saturday. At one point during the incident the armed inmate held two nurses hostage, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Tywon Salters was being held on stolen vehicle charges. He had been incarcerated at the Kane County Jail since April 11. Salters was admitted to the hospital on Monday. Illinois law enforcement officials have not yet released any details about why the inmate was hospitalized. Kane County Sheriff’s Office representatives cited federal medical privacy laws as the reason behind the lack of shared information.

The armed inmate fired a round from the 9mm handgun he had stolen from the correction’s officer and hit a member of the North Aurora Police Department SWAT team. The shot lodged in the officer’s bulletproof vest, allowing him to escape any serious injury. The officer was later treated and released from the same Illinois hospital.

The Illinois hospital standoff began on the third floor, but ended in the emergency room of the Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital by late afternoon. The area was cleared of both staff and patients quickly after an armed Salters and his nurse hostage entered the area.

When Tywon Salters was shot and killed by a police officer, he and the female nurse he was still holding hostage were barricaded inside a room in the emergency care section of the Illinois hospital. Law enforcement investigators are not yet sure how one of the nurses got away from the armed inmate. The Illinois State Police are still in the early stages of their investigation into the standoff.

The Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital went into lockdown mode after Sakters stole the gun and took two nurses hostage. Patients being cared for elsewhere in the hospital remained on the premises as well.

“We were able to move patients out of the ER. Those that needed medical care were transferred to other hospitals,” Illinois hospital spokeswoman Kimberly Waterman said. “We do a lot of training, [for armed intruder scenarios] we work closely with our partners in law enforcement.”

Although the female nurse hostage was both “extremely emotional and upset” after being freed by the SWAT team, she was physically fine. The nurse was immediately given care by trauma staff at the hospital and reunited with her family.

The lockdown order at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital was lifted by 6 p.m. on Saturday evening and the Geneva facility once again began accepting ambulances and emergency patients a few hours later. The name of the correction’s officer guarding Tywon Salters has not yet been released.

Almost all hospitals are gun free zones. Do you think such policies help keep patients, staff, and visitors safe, or place them in harm’s way?

[Featured Image by Roman Globa/Shutterstock]

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