Redwood City Man Accused Of Attempted Murder In Hospital Attack

REDWOOD CITY, CA — A Redwood City man has been arrested on an attempted murder charge after entering the Kaiser Hospital Emergency room Friday morning, brandishing a knife and a replica handgun and threatening to kill a hospital employee, police said.

Police officers responded at 6:33 a.m. to a report of an active shooter inside the emergency room. In fact, Smith's gun was a replica and no shots had been fired, but Smith did brandish his knife and the replica gun at a hospital employee and threaten to kill him, police said.

Arriving within two minutes, police said they found Smith and ordered him to drop his knife and the replica handgun. Smith complied, was arrested, and was brought to a local hospital for a minor, self-inflicted injury.

Smith was later booked into San Mateo County jail on various charges including attempted murder, brandishing a deadly weapon and making terrorist threats, police said.

Kaiser Permanente has released a statement about the incident. In fairness to Kaiser, here is the statement in its entirety:

"At approximately 6:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 11, there was an incident at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Redwood City. There were no injuries and a suspect was taken into custody immediately.

"A man, who is not a Kaiser Permanente member and was not being treated, brought knives and a non-operational pellet gun into our Emergency Department lobby area. The man proceeded to throw the knives, which did not hit anyone, and to damage the lobby walls and windows with the butt of the pellet gun. The security supervisor called 911 and Redwood City police arrived within 2 minutes of the call and took the man into custody without further incident.

"The incident did not result in any injuries. Emotional support was provided to staff on Friday, and Kaiser Permanente leaders are conducting meetings with staff on every shift to update them on the incident.

"Our Emergency Department caregivers, security officers, and response teams are well trained for emergent situations, and staff reacted in accordance with their training."

Police are investigating, and anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact Detective Sergeant Ed Conover at 650-780-7159.