Suspect charged in California hospital stabbing of doctor, 2 nurses

Prosecutors on Tuesday charged a man with attempted murder after they say he stabbed a doctor and two nurses inside a Southern California hospital emergency ward last week.

Ashkan Amirsoleymani, 35, remained inside a storage room at the Encino Hospital Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley for hours on Friday before police arrested him, authorities said. His arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday.

He is being held on $3 million bail on three counts of attempted murder with allegations of causing great bodily injury. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

The criminal complaint against Amirsoleymani lists five previous convictions, including assault with a deadly weapon in 2008 and assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury in 2018.

Police previously said Amirsoleymani had parked his car in the middle of a street and went to the emergency room, where he asked for treatment for anxiety. Prosecutors say he first stabbed the doctor and then the two nurses.

A witness described the chaotic scene as a “bloodbath” to the Los Angeles Times.

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There was no evidence that he knew the victims, Los Angeles police Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said at a news conference Friday. He remained inside a room in the hospital for about four hours as SWAT team members tried to to negotiate with him before he was finally arrested.

Friday’s 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.