Good thing lots of folks own guns that aren't locked up...


OLYMPIA, Wash. - An unruly patient at an Olympia hospital was shot
dead by a police officer early Saturday when the patient pulled out a
gun in an emergency treatment room, officers said.

The bizarre incident began at about 2:15 a.m. Saturday when the
security staff at Providence St. Peter Hospital called police to ask
for help in dealing with an unruly, 220-pound patient who was possibly
armed.

Officers arrived at the hospital and were directed to a 43-year-old
Elma man in the emergency room who had been brought into the hospital
by his mother with a head injury. The mother told hospital personnel
he might be armed.

The officers searched the man, identified as Joseph Leonard Burkett,
and found two loaded handguns. The guns were confiscated, and officers
later discovered they had been stolen from a home in McCleary.

Burkett remained in the emergency room with police present while
treatment for his head injury continued.

About two hours later, Burkett was scheduled for a medical test, but
when hospital staff began to get him ready for the test, he again
became agitated and unruly, police said.

The officer who was on guard entered the treatment room to assist the
emergency room staff. When he did, Burkett pulled out yet another gun.
The officer and Burkett wrestled for the weapon. During the struggle,
the officer fired one shot at the patient.

Hospital staff immediately began treating Burkett for the gunshot
wound, but they were unable to save him. He died there in the
treatment room.

The officer involved in the shooting is a 13-year veteran of the
Olympia Police Department. He has been placed on administrative leave,
in accordance with standard procedure, during an investigation of the
shooting.

Police said one main focus of the investigation will be to determine
how the patient got into the treatment room - after he had been
searched - with a third firearm.

"We're not sure where it came from," says Sgt. Jim Partin of the
Thurston County Sheriff's Department. "It's part of the investigation
obviously to find out. Was it on his person? Was it hidden in the
room? (We) don't know where it came from - if it came in a backpack,
or coat. Who knows?"

Hospital officials said nothing remotely like this incident has ever
happened there before.

Officers later determined that all three of the guns confiscated at
the hospital were stolen from inside a house in McCleary.

Officials say they believe Burkett entered the house through a
shattered window while the homeowner is out of town, then took the
three guns from a small arsenal of dozens of weapons inside the home.

Police came to the home Saturday afternoon and removed the remaining
weapons for safekeeping at the homeowner's request.

It appears Burkett lived in a low-income housing complex in Elma,
about 30 miles southwest of Olympia.

Elma police say their records show that one of their officers had a
run-in with Burkett just the other night.