LOS ANGELES — A person suspected of stabbing a doctor and two nurses at an Encino hospital before barricading themselves in a room for several hours was taken into custody Friday night, according to authorities.
Around 8:15 p.m., a Los Angeles Police Department source confirmed to the Los Angeles Times the suspect was in custody.
Officers were first called to the hospital at 3:50 p.m., said Officer Drake Madison, a police spokesperson.
Police sources and Elizabeth Nikels, a spokesperson for Prime Healthcare, which runs the hospital, confirmed that the victims are a doctor and two nurses.
The victims are being treated at Dignity Health Northridge Hospital Medical Center and are stable, said Christina Zicklin, a hospital spokesperson.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore said officers cornered the suspect alone “in the area of the emergency room,” at the Encino hospital.
SWAT officers entered the hospital around 5:25 p.m. The FBI was at the scene and offering assistance where needed, said agency spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.
Police did not know the motive for the attack, Moore said.
“We’re very mindful of what just occurred in Tulsa and what’s happened all across the country,” Moore said.
A gunman killed three employees and a patient Wednesday at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical office, the latest in a series of recent mass shootings in the U.S. Last week, 19 children and two teachers were killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 days earlier, a gunman killed 10 people in a racially motivated attack at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York.
“Law enforcement, as the rest of the public, is mindful of this spasm that we’ve seen of these horrific tragedies, and the department is committed to ensuring that we are doing everything we can to ensure the safety of the public and prevent these horrible attacks,” Moore said.
Authorities haven’t released the suspect’s identity; however, LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said the suspect is known to police and has an arrest record.
