LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – It has been nearly six months since a person was shot and killed inside CHI St. Vincent Hospital in Sherwood. KARK 4 News has gotten the after-action report from police.
Police said the victim was 21-year-old Leighton Whitfield who was visiting his fiancé at the hospital when the suspect Raymond Lovett walked into the room and shot him.
The after-action report from the Sherwood Police Department lists positives of how the situation was handled by police, including quick response times, a thorough search for the suspect and different agencies working well together.
The listed complications also take up a few pages, first starting with radio communications.
The report claims radios were not working and officers had to communicate over cell phones.
Even further, it reveals that getting a description of the shooter to law enforcement was delayed because of communication issues.
Authorities now are saying in the report that there needs to be a more established line of communication.
The report adds that staff in two other neighboring buildings were unaware of the active shooter.
It also claims access to master keys, badges and facility maps were highly delayed when they needed to search all rooms of the hospital, and door locks had been rekeyed or new locks had been put in place.
Finally, the report states when the active shooter alert was made, the pharmacy was evacuated and there were still patients inside the hospital needing medicine that weren’t able to get necessary medications.
KARK 4 News reached out to the hospital’s PR firm for comment. A spokesperson responded with the following quote:
The health and safety of CHI St. Vincent’s patients, staff and health care providers are our ministry’s top priorities. Immediately following the incident at CHI St. Vincent North, we engaged in an extensive after-action review, both in coordination with the responding law enforcement agencies and independently, to identify any opportunities to improve our security protocols and/or educate staff on existing protocols in place. The improvements identified by local officials and our teams have already been implemented as well as additional steps to keep our community safe when they come to our healing ministry. CHI St. Vincent has also shared those learnings with the Arkansas Hospital Association so that our fellow healthcare providers can learn from this experience as well.
CHI St. Vincent is proud of our healthcare, facilities and security personnel for their quick response during an incident that none of us would ever want to encounter. That includes our surgeons and medical staff who chose to continue patient surgeries during the evacuation and the dozens of volunteers from our other hospitals and healthcare facilities who rushed to CHI St. Vincent North in order to support our staff and maintain the continuity of care for our patients.
CHI St. Vincent Spokesperson
Sherwood Police were also reached out to for comment, but KARK 4 News has not yet heard back.
The suspect is now facing a capital murder charge and has pled not guilty in court. He is due back in court in July.
