A man in a Washington State nursing home is accused of shooting and wounding an employee of the Josephine facility.
The Josephine, it should be noted, is a massive complex consisting of a 160-bed nursing home, a 57-bed assisted living home, and a day care for approximately 250 children. Newspaper reports give conflicting accounts of the man’s age (86 or 87 years-old) but agree on most of the other facts of the case.
The nursing home resident entered the office of one of the facility supervisors, produced a handgun and fired two shots, hitting the man once in the stomach. The man, though injured, was able to wrestle the weapon away from the man, and additional staff members subdued him until police arrived. The victim of the shooting survived, and is recovering at home.
The nursing home resident told police his plan was to shoot the employee and then himself. Because he was stopped he was able to explain his motive: nursing home abuse.
The resident told police that he felt that he had been the victim of a campaign of bullying by the supervisor. The resident is being held on a $200,000 bond. Considering the uncontested nature of the assault, it’s likely he will be spending the rest of his life in a prison facility.
Was the man being bullied? We will probably never know the full truth. It is highly unusual for a nursing home resident to completely fabricate an abusive situation, but it is possible. It is much more likely is that a clash of personalities escalated until violence seemed like the only answer.
Intervention by a family member or the state’s long-term care ombudsman might have been able to stop this situation before it reached the breaking point.
If you have a loved one in a nursing home, be sure to ask them about their relationship with nursing home employees. Nursing home residents are often reluctant to confide that they feel abused or bullied. Be persistent, and look for clues that your loved one might be depressed or angry.
If you believe that your loved one has been the victim of nursing home abuse or nursing home neglect in an Illinois nursing home, contact our Chicago Illinois nursing home lawyers for a free and confidential evaluation of your case.
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