The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Crime Wave Now Reaches Hospitals

Posted on | September 6, 2023 | Comments Off on Crime Wave Now Reaches Hospitals

Say hello to Reginald Kane Jackson, a/k/a PoniaX Kane Calles, and while you’re at it, go ahead and say good-bye, because Jackson/Calles shuffled off this mortal coil in July, shortly after he fatally shot a hospital security guard in Portland, Oregon. Jackson/Calles fled the scene, but cops eventually found him in nearby Gresham, where the suspect died in the proverbial hail of police gunfire. Incidents such as the one that killed security guard Bobby Smallwood at Portland’s Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center have proliferated in recent years, as the Associated Press detailed “a wave of gun violence sweeping through U.S. hospitals and medical centers” which “have helped make health care one of the nation’s most violent fields.” What brought this to my attention was a story this week from Birmingham, Alabama:

Gunfire erupted outside [University of Alabama-Birmingham] Hospital early Monday as multiple gunshot victims arrived in a private vehicle seeking help.
According to authorities and witnesses, a champagne-colored Chevrolet Tahoe pulled up to the hospital entrance seeking help for gunshot victims inside. That shooting is believed to have taken place following an altercation at Aria Restaurant and Lounge in the 900 block of Fifth Avenue North.
When the SUV got to UAB — about 2:17 a.m. — another vehicle pulled up and opened fire on the Tahoe. Witnesses said they heard multiple shots fired, describing the sounds as “iron pipes hitting.”
The gunfire hit a UAB police vehicle and a hospital window.
Birmingham and UAB police officers shut down the area surrounding the emergency room. The hospital was placed on lockdown.
Birmingham police Officer Truman Fitzgerald [said] at least five people were shot in the initial incident on Fifth Avenue North.
Two of those victims – both females – were pronounced dead at the hospital.
According the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office, a 33-year-old woman was pronounced dead at 2:30 a.m. and 24-year-old woman was pronounced dead at 2:55 a.m.
Fitzgerald said the two women — who later died — and an injured man were in the SUV that showed up at UAB. The man’s injuries are life-threatening.
Two other women showed up at the hospital by private vehicle, also with gunshot wounds. Their injuries are not life-threatening.
Police said at least two suspects fired on the victims when they arrived at the hospital. They have not been arrested.
“We believe this incident was a targeted attack, however we do believe many of the victims were innocent bystanders,’’ Fitzgerald said.

The location where the initial shooting occurred is a nightclub that doesn’t even open until 10 p.m., and was hosting a “rehab Sunday” event during the Labor Day weekend, which explains why club patrons were getting shot at 2 a.m. on a Monday — and then shot at again when they went to the hospital for treatment. Gun violence is seldom completely random. That is to say, individuals can reduce their chances of being shot by about 99% simply by taking a few basic safety precautions, such as stay out of downtown Birmingham after midnight.

Baltimore, Memphis, Detroit, Atlanta — that rule can be generalized to most U.S. cities, where a lot of gunfire seems to occur after midnight, which we might speculate has something to do with the kind of people who are out after midnight in most U.S. cities. But I digress . . .

The shooting at the Portland hospital happened in the middle of the day, but it illustrated another well-known rule of personal safety:

Gunman at Oregon hospital
had history of mental illness,
threatened to ‘punch the baby out’
of girlfriend’s stomach
The man who fatally shot a security officer inside Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center had an extensive criminal record, threatened staff at the hospital in the days leading up to the weekend shooting and threatened to harm the woman bearing his baby months before the birth.
Police shot and killed the gunman — identified Monday by police and prosecutors as PoniaX Kane Calles, 33 — during a standoff in Gresham several hours after Saturday’s shooting at the Northwest Portland hospital.
Calles had menaced hospital staff for at least three days, spurring some workers to ask supervisors to have him removed, according to sources familiar with the investigation. He was at the hospital for a partner who was giving birth to their third child.
At one point Saturday when Calles wasn’t around the woman’s room, hospital security officer Bobby Smallwood went into the room with another employee and removed a case that appeared suspicious. The case turned out to hold two guns, the sources said. The woman in the room claimed the guns were in her name because Calles couldn’t have them, the sources said.
Just before 11 a.m., Calles returned to the floor and got in the face of a charge nurse. Smallwood stood between them. Calles apparently had a third gun, pulled out the handgun, a struggle ensued and he shot the unarmed Smallwood, the sources said.
Calles previously went by the name Reginald Kane Jackson. He formally changed his name in 2019. He had an arrest history from California before arriving in Oregon around 2012, as well as a history of mental illness, court records indicate.
Earlier this year, Ashley Heil, while six months pregnant, sought and obtained a restraining order on April 21 against Calles, with an order that he be prohibited from buying or possessing any guns or ammunition. She noted he had two handguns and a rifle, according to court records.
There’s no record that law enforcement officers removed guns from Calle’s possession.
Heil cited Calles’ “anti-government & anger issues.” She expressed concern about the safety of their 8-year-old daughter, a 1-year-old and an unborn child. She reported unspecified child abuse by Calles involving their oldest daughter that involved state child welfare authorities, according to her petition.
Calles also endangered her, she wrote, reporting in the petition that he threatened to punch her “and that thing in your stomach” on April 16 when she pushed him aside aside as he went to hug her.
“That same day he said he didn’t want the baby and a few days before he said he was going to punch the baby out,” she wrote.

Sometimes when you read that a suspect “had an extensive criminal record,” you may wonder, “What do they mean by ‘extensive’?”

Under his original name, he was convicted in 2016 of stabbing another man in the face with a knife after a dispute in September 2015 at a Boxer Ramen restaurant in Northeast Portland.
At that time, he was attending Alcoholics Anonymous on and off and suffered from depression, according to court records. He had chased two women into the restaurant, walked up to a stranger’s table, asked, “Does it taste good?” and got into a fight with a man seated at the table who asked to be left alone.
The two ended up fighting in front of the restaurant, where the stabbing occurred, according to court records. Under the name Jackson, he pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree assault and was placed on probation for three years, ordered to undergo drug treatment and have a mental health evaluation.
On Nov. 18, 2019, he was arrested in Multnomah County on a third-degree criminal mischief allegation. At the time, he gave an address on Southwest Columbia Street. The next month, prosecutors dropped the charge. In March of this year, he filed a motion to set aside the arrest record, providing a different address on Northeast Sandy Boulevard.
In 2019, he also reported he had been diagnosed as suffering from a bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, had no job or benefits, according to court records.
In the fall of 2019, Calles, under his original name, was the target of a stalking order obtained by a man living in Northeast Portland who alleged “unwanted repeated contact” from him. The man wrote to the court that Calles had thrown an “incendiary” powder that exploded into smoke on his driveway in March of that year and had “pointed a red laser-sighted pistol” at him in October 2018, according to court records. The man’s lawyer said Calles told him that Calles “wanted something bad to happen to me,” according to the petitioner. . . .
His arrest history in California dates to 2004, including arrests for attempted murder, robbery, battery, disorderly conduct and vandalism as well as a 2016 mental health commitment, according to court records.

So, he was 33 when he died, and his arrest record goes all the way back to 2004, when he would have been only 14 years old. Yet when he stabbed a man in the face, he was only sentenced to three years probation. Please, lecture me more about our alleged “mass incarceration” problem.

Anyway, he was reportedly diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, but you don’t need to be a psychiatrist to know that this guy was daft, demented, deranged, bonkers, berserk, off his rocker, nuttier than a Snickers bar, a few fries short of a Happy Meal, and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. And as a matter of personal safety, you should avoid hanging around people like that, which was the mistake made by the Portland shooter’s girlfriend. And because she was hanging around this crazy guy, a hospital security guard got shot to death, once again proving what I keep telling you people: Crazy People Are Dangerous.



 

Category: Crime

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