A nurse was shot in the leg after a patient fired a police officer’s gun inside of an Ocala, Florida hospital Saturday.
Jason Gignac, 38, was arrested immediately after the incident and has been charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting a law enforcement officer with violence.
The incident occurred at West Marion Community Hospital Saturday afternoon.
Florida Highway Patrol discovered Gignac walking along Interstate 75 barefoot earlier in the day and asked him three separate times to get away from the road, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
Gignac asked for medical attention because he was ill, so troopers brought him to the hospital, where he was treated by doctors.
Following the treatment troopers attempted to take Gignac into custody for failure to obey a lawful order and a struggle ensued. During that struggle, police say Gignac grabbed a trooper’s gun and it was discharged, wounding a nurse.
Gignac also allegedly bit at least two of the troopers during the struggle.
The nurse was treated at West Marion Community Hospital and is in stable condition.
Gignac’s mother told clickorlando.com that her son has a substance abuse problem and needs help.
Florida Highway Patrol Lieutenant Patrick Riordan said the department is conducting an internal investigation to determine how the gun was discharged.
“When an internal investigation is done, we look at a lot of things,” Lt. Riordan said. “We look at preventative measures as far as maybe the handling of a firearm, defensive tactics, any of this things can be looked at in these internal investigation.”
