Inmate to be charged in Kingston hospital shooting

Kingston, Ont., police are charging a prison inmate with three counts of attempted murder in the shooting of a patient at the Kingston General Hospital Monday evening.

According to Kingston police, the inmate disarmed a correctional officer inside the hospital and fired the gun twice at about 6 p.m.

One person was shot in the leg and suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries.

The prisoner was restrained and taken to Kingston police headquarters.

Police said Tuesday morning the still-unnamed inmate is being charged with three counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault, one count of disarming a peace officer and other weapons charges.

He’s expected in court this afternoon.

‘It was terrifying’

Dr. David Messenger, an emergency room doctor and head of the Queen’s University department of emergency medicine, which had medical students in the ER at the time of the shooting, said hospital staff are traumatized.

“It was terrifying for staff. We spoke as a group after it happened,” said Messenger, who arrived at the hospital about five minutes after the shooting.

“This happened in a very crowded, busy area of the emergency department, steps from multiple other patients.”

He said the hospital has a “Code Silver” plan for dangerous weapons in the hospital, but it’s extremely uncommon for something like this to happen.

Staff did review these plans after a 2017 shooting at a hospital in Cobourg, Ont., about 150 kilometres to the west.

He was part of debriefs immediately after the shooting and told CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning that the man who fired the shots had been brought to the hospital to be assessed for a medical condition.