Police: Gunman kills nurse, employee in hospital shooting

March 28, 2008 11:22 am

— Posted: March 28

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — A retired school teacher bearing a grudge over his mother’s treatment at a hospital where she died fatally shot a male nurse and another hospital employee Thursday, then wounded another man in the parking lot before he was shot by police, authorities said.
Charles Johnston, 63, was being charged with murder and would be turned over to police after an overnight stay in another hospital where he was treated for a shoulder wound, Police Chief Ricky Boren said.
The other wounded man, who was not identified, was in critical condition, Boren said. Those killed also were not identified, pending notification of their families.
The chief said the gunman arrived at Doctors Hospital with three pistols, including a 9mm automatic and a .38 caliber revolver, and went to the fifth floor intensive care unit where his mother had been in 2004.
“He blamed a male nurse. He didn’t think his mother had been properly cared for,” Boren said.
Boren gave the following account:
Johnston overheard someone call the nurse’s name, then waited until he went into an empty room where he confronted him, saying: “Do you remember me? Do you remember my mother?”
He shot him once, and the nurse started to run when he shot him again and the victim fell in the hall.
When the gunman started to leave, a male administrative secretary enterted the area saying, “Where did he go?” As he rounded a corner, he was shot, too, Boren said.
The gunman started to take an elevator, but finding it too slow went down the stairs.
As he was getting into his car in the parking lot, another car pulled in facing his, and the driver was shot as he got out of the vehicle.
A city deputy marshal arrived in the parking lot; he fired at her and she shot back, but neither was hit. A plainclothes detective blocked the gunman’s car, and when Johnston pulled a gun, the detective shot him, Boren said.
The chief said the man wounded in the parking lot was in critical condition. Johnston was taken to the Medical Center.
“He appears to be in satisfactory condition after surgery. He had one gunshot wound to the right shoulder,” Boren said.