Another shooting rattles Deaconess Hospital
A Spokane County corrections officer fired his gun at a fleeing inmate inside Deaconess Hospital early Monday morning.
It’s the second time in six days that gunfire has erupted on the hospital’s campus.
The shot missed Cameron A. Trevino, 26, a man with a long rap sheet and gang ties. He had been awaiting surgery at Deaconess when he tried to escape at about 2 a.m., running from the eighth floor of the hospital’s tower building into the stairwell and then onto the fourth floor, authorities said.
The jailer, who has not been identified, gave chase down the stairs and confronted Trevino as he ran around on the fourth floor, where there was an “altercation,” according to police.
Spokane police are investigating, and hospital administrators want a thorough explanation of how the events unfolded, including a review of policies and procedures regarding inmates, armed officers and use-of-force guidelines.
Deaconess had closed its pediatrics rooms this spring on the eighth floor. The floor is now an observation unit.
Hospital spokeswoman Jill Fix said the fourth floor at Deaconess is now used as an Emergency Department fast-track area. At the time of the shooting, there were no patients or hospital staff on the floor.
“We’re lucky (Trevino) chose the fourth floor,” Fix said.
Neither police nor hospital officials disclosed what surgery Trevino needed.
Last Tuesday a man walked into the Rockwood Cancer Treatment Center laboratory on the Deaconess campus at 9:30 a.m. and shot and killed his wife and then himself.
Sheena Henderson worked at the lab, and her violent death at the hands of estranged and troubled husband Christopher Henderson unfolded in front of about a half dozen stunned co-workers.
The murder-suicide has closed the lab as police continue their investigation. Christopher Henderson was a former police officer in Missouri. He had suicidal tendencies earlier this year, but surrendered his weapon to police after an encounter. He briefly received mental health treatment.
On June 19, the state Department of Social and Health Services cleared the return of the gun to Henderson, and he retrieved it from police on Monday, July 7. The shooting happened the next day.
Fix said Rockwood will relocate the lab to a different floor in the Deaconess Health and Education Center building at the corner of Monroe Street and Fifth Avenue.
The Trevino case further rattled a hospital community struggling to regroup after last week’s tragedy.
Police arrested Trevino on Friday, suspecting him of first-degree assault with a firearm. He is accused of pointing a handgun and threatening to kill a Crips gang member he became angered with for selling heroin to his girlfriend.
Trevino’s criminal record spans years in several counties and on the Colville Confederated Tribes reservation, according to court documents.
Trevino’s criminal history includes a burglary conviction out of Grant County, according to federal court documents, and he has “an extensive tribal history,” according to federal authorities.
Trevino was ordered to spend 16 months in federal prison, with credit given for time served, in October 2011 for guns and drugs. He was released in April 2012 and placed on three years’ probation.
Authorities suspect Trevino violated the terms of that probation at least twice. In July 2013, Colville tribal officers suspected Trevino in an alleged theft involving credit cards, but the case was dismissed. A domestic violence case alleged that Trevino violated his probation by sending explicit text messages to a woman two months ago.
Trevino was scheduled to appear in federal court to face those allegations later this month.