Police ID Suspect Who Stabbed Doctor, Nurses At CA Hospital

LOS ANGELES, CA — Authorities arrested a man in connection with a stabbing at a Southern California hospital that left a doctor and two nurses injured on Friday. The man barricaded himself in a room for hours before police were able to reach him, officials said.

Ashkan Amirsoleymani, 35, was booked on three counts of attempted murder following Friday's violent attack, the Los Angeles Police Department said on Twitter Saturday. Amirsoleymani is being held on $3 million bail, authorities said.

LAPD officers were again called to Encino Hospital Medical Center at about 3:50 p.m. on Friday amid reports of an assault with a deadly weapon suspect armed with a knife inside the hospital.

Amirsoleymani walked into the hospital seeking treatment for anxiety, police said. He suddenly stabbed his attending doctor and two nurses before fleeing the room.

The victims were taken to a trauma center in critical condition, and one victim underwent surgery. All three were later listed in stable condition at Dignity Health Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

The attack triggered the evacuation of the first floor of the hospital and some nearby offices, while the suspect remained barricaded inside a room nearby. He remained in the room for about four hours as SWAT members attempted to negotiate with him.

After his arrest, he was taken to another hospital for treatment of self-inflicted wounds on his arms, police said.

Amirsoleymani has a lengthy criminal record and was arrested twice last year for battery of a police officer and resisting arrest.

The attack came only two days after a gunman killed four people and then himself at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The assailant got inside a building on the Saint Francis Hospital campus with little trouble, just hours after buying an AR-style rifle, authorities said.

The man killed his surgeon and three other people at a medical office. He blamed the doctor for his continuing pain after a recent back operation.

City News Service and the Associated Press contributed to this report.