Michael Strand
The Salina Journal
SALINA, Kan. — A man serving a sentence at Ellsworth Correctional Facility for attempted murder tried to escape Thursday afternoon while being treated at Salina Regional Health Center, knocking down a nurse and attempting to grab a correctional officer’s gun.
Capt. Mike Sweeney, of the Salina Police Department, said the inmate, identified as Paul Stotts, 26, was being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit when he pushed a nurse shortly before 3 p.m. and “started running down the hall, with a guard in pursuit.”
The Ellsworth Correctional Facility guard tackled Stotts in the hall, with help from two male nurses, Sweeney said, and Stotts attempted to grab the guard’s gun.
Salina police arrived in time to help cuff Stotts, Sweeney said.
By 4 p.m., a vehicle was on its way to Salina from Ellsworth to pick up Stotts and take him back to the prison.
“Salina Regional determined he does not need to be housed there any more,” said Todd Britton, public information officer for Ellsworth Correctional Facility. “He’s coming back to our infirmary.”
Weapon never fired
Britton said Stotts had been at Salina Regional for two days; federal health-care privacy laws prevented him from saying what Stotts was being treated for.
Britton said that when inmates need to be treated at outside hospitals, they are watched by a corrections officer 24 hours a day. If the inmate is minimum security, the guard is generally not armed.
“He was not minimum custody, so the officer was armed,” Britton said. “He did not get the weapon. He did attempt to try to grab it, but the officer never lost control of the weapon.”
Britton said that the weapon was not fired.
Battery charges likely
Sweeney said it’s likely police will ask that Stotts be charged with battery for pushing the nurse.
Jack Hinnenkamp, vice president of facilities at Salina Regional, said a “code silver” alert was broadcast at the hospital during the incident, alerting staff that there was an “active situation with a weapon.”
He said the nurse who had been knocked down was taken to the emergency department to be checked out “as a precaution.”
In prison since 2009
Stotts has been in prison since 2009, after being convicted in Reno County for attempted second-degree murder and various drug crimes committed in 2007, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.
While in prison, his disciplinary record includes battery, possessing “dangerous contraband” and being intoxicated.
His earliest release date is March of 2028.