Community reacts after deputies fatally shoot armed man at Sentara Albemarle Hospital

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (WAVY) — Community members of Elizabeth City have raised concerns about hospital safety after three Pasquotank County deputies shot and killed an armed man at Sentara Albemarle Medical Center Tuesday morning.

According to officials, around 1:13 a.m., deputies with the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Elizabeth City Police Department were dispatched to the hospital after a patient arrived at the hospital’s emergency department with a handgun.

Police and deputies from the sheriff’s office arrived at the hospital four minutes later. Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten outlined the details of the attack, and Sentara Albemarle Medical Center president Teresa Watson said she had seen the hospital surveillance video of the attack.

The suspect was shot by deputies on scene after he pointed the firearm towards law enforcement, officials said.

“They made their way into the ER waiting room at that time,” Wooten said. “Once they arrived on scene, law enforcement found a male subject in the ER triage room, armed with a handgun. The suspect pointed the handgun at law enforcement. The suspect was struck with gunfire from law enforcement and was able to receive immediate medical care by ER staff.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting.

“That made the hair on my arm stand up,” Watson said. “Because if you find yourself faced with a gun to your head, which we have seen that with several of our teammates, you’ve got to take care of your patients, and what you will find with our charge nurse is that even though this person had her held in a room with a gun on her, the minute he was shot, she was delivering aid to that individual.”

Wooten said the three deputies who fired their guns and killed the suspect are on administrative leave.

One family who was at the hospital said they are feeling fortunate after leaving the hospital right before the suspect walked in.

“We were like wow, that would be crazy if they got in the middle of that,” John O’Madigan said.

O’Madigan said that, being from up north, he is used to these types of incidents. He said more security should be implemented in the case of these incidents.

“They have like, metal detectors at the end and all that, especially with the ER,” O’Madigan said. “Because a lot of people come in drunk, high, whatever, and it makes it a lot harder for things to happen if you ain’t got the metal detector to stop — make sure they get searched before they come through.”

A former hospital employee agreed, saying that metal detectors need to be installed.

“A hospital should be something 24 hours, but, you know, at some point, if things aren’t maintained, or if people don’t feel safe going to the ED, you know that maybe something we have to look at what kind of changes we can make as far as security.”

The former employee told 10 On Your Side off camera she was familiar with the workers who the suspect pointed the gun at.

“Well first off, I’m thinking about the staff at the hospital, you know and the patients that were in there, is everyone OK?” the former employee said.

The former employee said she believes that patients need more resources.

“We need to, as a community, as a facility around here, we just need to do better with our psych patients,” she said. “We need to have somewhere or something that can help them so that incidents like this won’t occur.”