An active shooter was reported by multiple sources to be at the Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center in Downey, CA on Tuesday morning at 3PM EDT. The shooter has since been taken into custody, with no reported casualties from the event.
The shooter has since been detained, and has been identified to be 34-year-old Jesus Chavez of Lynwood, according to ABC7.
UPDATE: Police ID Jesus Chavez as suspect in the disturbance at a Kaiser medical facility in Downey t.co/jVfpJiLZgP
Here’s what we know about what happened:
At 3PM on Tuesday, The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department tweeted, “@NorwalkLASD sending units to assist @DowneyPolice with a fluid, emergent situation at the #Kaiser in #Downey. Possible #activeshooter”
Some Kaiser employees took to Twitter to confirm that someone with a gun was in the building, tweeting, “I work at Kaiser in Downey and someone is here with a gun.”
It’s unclear why Chavez came to Kaiser Permanente. More specifically, it’s unclear where the suspect was in the building, though one Twitter user specified that the shooter was in the Orchard building.
One user confirmed that the suspect was taken into custody around 3:20 PM EDT. That suspect has since been detained and the rest of the hospital has been evacuated, according to KTLA.
There were several reports of a lockdown in the building earlier in the day, as well as a potential hostage situation, but neither of those reports were confirmed by officials to be true.
In a subsequent press conference, police confirmed that Chavez threw a chair out of a window before pulling out a handgun. Police have since booked Chavez for criminal threats. He is being held in Los Angeles County Jail.