A nurse was in critical condition after allegedly being stabbed by a man who bypassed a hospital’s weapons screening area in Sylmar early Sunday.
Authorities said 26-year-old Romero Carnailla ran into the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, located in the 14400 block of Olive View Drive around 2 a.m., according to a news release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Security and law enforcement officers were searching the hospital for the man until they heard a woman screaming. They found her a short time later suffering from stab wounds to her upper and lower torso, officials said.
She was taken to a trauma center in critical condition.
Authorities took Carnailla into custody. A knife was found at the hospital, deputies said.
Officials said it appears the attacker did not know the victim.
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Carnailla faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon and battery, sheriff's officials said. He was being held on $55,000 bail.
County Services Bureau, a law enforcement operation that presides over nearly 200 Los Angeles County facilities, was handling the investigation.
The incident marked the first of two stabbing attacks on an on-duty nurse in Southern California on the same day.
Later Sunday morning, another nurse was stabbed by a man at a Torrance hospital. She suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
