Following a shooting in December 2018 that claimed the lives of a pharmacy resident, a doctor, and a Chicago police officer, an Illinois Appellate Court panel this week ordered Mercy Hospital & Medical Center to provide two reports on the hospital’s security practices.
The order, which was issued on Wednesday, directs Mercy to give the lawyers for Brian Less, the father of Dayna Less, a pharmacy worker who was slain in the shooting, access to the two reports.
After the incident, nearly a year later, Brian Less sued Mercy. Mercy revealed that it hired two specialists to examine the hospital’s security systems following the incident during discovery.
“Plaintiff sought to ascertain, among other things, how and why [the shooter, Juan] Lopez, remained undetected on the hospital grounds for over an hour and a half before reentering through unlocked doors several minutes after he fired multiple shots in Mercy Hospital’s parking lot, killing his first victim in plain view of hospital security, and how and why Mercy Hospital security failed to announce a “Code Silver” to warn people about the active shooter situation.
Earlier this year, a Cook County Circuit Court judge ordered Mercy to submit the reports to Brian Less’, but Mercy appealed, arguing the reports were confidential and exempt from discovery. The panel of the appellate court disagreed.
Mercy’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
The shooter, Lopez, and Dr. Tamara O’Neal were previously engaged. Police claim that shortly after the incident, Lopez approached O’Neal in the hospital’s parking area and killed her there. After that, Lopez shot Dayna Less and CPD officer Samuel Jimenez to death. Lopez passed away in the hospital as well.
