ATLANTA — Medical professionals and staff at Northside Medical Hospital Midtown are used to seeing patients and families walk into its offices, but Wednesday's series of appointments took an unexpected and dangerous turn.
“I never imagined I would be in an active shooter situation ever but this is something that happened to me,” said Rangik Sangh. He was accompanying his wife at an appointment at the Northside Medical Midtown when Atlanta Police Department investigators said 24-year-old Deion Patterson opened fire in a waiting room on the 11th floor. He is accused of shooting five women; one of them died.
“The doctor came in and said we had some security situation going on, and still we were not sure," Sangth explained. "Then we came out of the room, the doctor office room and that’s when I came to know that there’s an active shooter situation going on and I looked out the window cops everywhere."
While he says they were not on the floor with the shooter he said they were still very scared -- and he’s not alone.
Dr. Timothy Simon was performing surgery at the time of the shooting.
“I knew about five or 10 minutes into the surgery that there was an incident going on below us. I knew that maybe somebody was shooting but you know I’m just a surgeon so I was just thinking, 'We need to get finished with the surgery because someone might have to come up,'” he said.
And while Simon said he was calm enough to complete his surgery he said the event, understandably, traumatized others.
“There was at least one or two of our staff that maybe heard some of the commotion more vividly than I did, and they did need to take the day off to decompress,” Simon said. He adds he’s praying for those impacted.
In a statement, Northside Hospital said its community is grieving and they deeply love and support the employees and patients who are directly involved or impacted in any way. They are calling for May 5 to be a day of reflection.