St. Mary’s Medical Center security, deputy detain patient in assault on staff
WEST PALM BEACH FL April 25 2020 — A patient at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach wandered from his room Tuesday afternoon over to the nurses’ station.
A certified nursing assistant working on a computer there told West Palm Beach police she didn’t think much of it. Humberto Castillo Lopez, 26, had roamed the floor before without any problems.
Then the 19-year-old felt something around her neck — Castillo Lopez’s arm, authorities say, holding the nursing assistant so tightly that she could neither breathe nor call for help.
The attack left the nursing assistant in “extreme pain” from the top of her head down her lower back, she told city police, and prompted her to be taken to the emergency room.
Authorities arrested Castillo Lopez, who had been at St. Mary’s since April 10, on a charge of aggravated battery on a medical provider. He has pleaded not guilty and was released Wednesday from the Palm Beach County Jail on a $25,000 surety bond. His attorney, Ross Lavin, declined to speak about the case.
St. Mary’s staff only noticed what was happening after the nursing assistant tried to stand up, causing both her and Castillo Lopez to fall and the assistant to hit the back of her head on a printer.
A nurse who saw the incident said Castillo Lopez was holding a pen against the assistant’s throat as if he were going to stab her.
The staff eventually got Castillo Lopez off the woman, and a security guard and a West Palm Beach police sergeant detained him.
They told authorities that Castillo Lopez, who lives outside the Greenacres city limits, had been cleared to be released after more than a week at the 45th Street hospital, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to his face.
Authorities arrested Castillo Lopez, who had been at St. Mary’s since April 10, on a charge of aggravated battery on a medical provider. He has pleaded not guilty and was released Wednesday from the Palm Beach County Jail on a $25,000 surety bond. His attorney, Ross Lavin, declined to speak about the case.
St. Mary’s staff only noticed what was happening after the nursing assistant tried to stand up, causing both her and Castillo Lopez to fall and the assistant to hit the back of her head on a printer.
A nurse who saw the incident said Castillo Lopez was holding a pen against the assistant’s throat as if he were going to stab her.
