A second patient present during a hostage standoff at Geneva, Ill.-based Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital last May filed a motion seeking to join a federal lawsuit against the hospital and other key players involved over how the situation was handled, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Here are four things to know about the lawsuit.
1. Deanna Chrones was a hospital patient in the room next to Tywon Salters, an inmate who on May 13, 2017, allegedly obtained a handgun from corrections officer Shawn Loomis and held two nurses hostage before being killed in a standoff with a SWAT team.
2. Ms. Chrones' complaint "raised similar concerns" to those in a complaint filed by Victoria Weiland, another patient present at the hospital during the incident who filed a lawsuit last August claiming the hostage situation led her to experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a motion signed Feb. 12.
3. Ms. Weiland's lawsuit was the second lawsuit filed as a result of the incident. The first was filed last May by two Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital nurses, one of whom alleged she was tortured and raped by Mr. Salters while being held hostage by him for more than three hours.
4. However, the defendants identified in Ms. Weiland's lawsuit, including Kane County, Mr. Loomis and the hospital, reportedly objected Feb. 22 to Ms. Chrones' request to join Ms. Weiland's federal lawsuit, arguing that adding another plaintiff to the lawsuit would delay the court's ruling on the defendants' motions to dismiss the case, according to the report.
Lawyers for Mr. Loomis reportedly argued Ms. Weiland "seeks to expand liability beyond the physical victims of private violence to anyone near the crime scene who can claim to be emotionally distressed by what she may have heard and later learned," the Chicago Tribune reports.
To access the full report, click here.