Phoenix Hospital Says Visitor Fatally Shoots Self

PHOENIX (AP) — Authorities say a person visiting a family member at a Phoenix hospital has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Officials at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center say the shooting occurred about 4pm. Thursday. They didn’t release any details or the person’s name, age, gender or hometown.

Hospital officials say the area was quickly secured and no patients or staff were injured. The Phoenix Police Department’s crisis team and the hospital’s chaplains were meeting with patients and staff Thursday night.

Hospital officials say St. Joseph’s has a no firearms policy and there had never been a shooting incident in the hospital’s nearly 120-year history.

St. Joseph’s is the hospital where the ethics board signed off on an abortion for a patient, an action that eventually led to a decision by Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted that St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center could no longer be considered Catholic.