Florida Man Threatens Patients, Kills Self at Hospital

No patients were hurt.

A 20-year-old man threatened patients and nurses with a gun before killing himself at a Florida hospital Sunday, police said.

Daytona Beach Police Department officers responded to a report of shots being fired at a moving car Sunday at about 3:52 a.m. Shortly thereafter, police received a report of gunfire at nearby Halifax Hospital.

According to investigators, Jonathan Rodriguez-Jeff of Deltona shot a glass door entrance at the hospital's Professional Building. He then went to the second floor and confronted a nurse and patient inside a room.

"Do you want to die tonight?" police said the suspect asked them.

Rodriguez-Jeff left and went into a second room, confronting another nurse and patient. Shortly thereafter, he committed suicide inside the room by shooting himself in the head, police said.

At some point in the ordeal, two nurses were hit with the butt of Rodriguez-Jeff's shotgun, investigators said. They suffered minor injuries. No patients were hurt.

The hospital's emergency room and other entrances were placed on lockdown during the shooting. An unknown number of vehicles were struck by the shotgun blast inside the parking lot of the hospital, police said.

"We are thankful no one was seriously injured," John Gutherie, the hospital's director of corporate communications, said.

Daytona Beach Police Department spokesman Jimmie Flynt told The Daytona Beach News-Journal detectives were still investigating a possible motive.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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