Tywon Salters, 21

Geneva, Illinois
May 13, 2017

Agencies: Illinois State Police | Kane County State Attorney's Office Illinois | North Aurora Police Department Illinois

Cause of death: Shooting

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Last updated: over 5 years ago

Overview

A Kane County jail inmate was killed by a SWAT team Saturday afternoon after he stole a correctional officer's gun and held a Geneva hospital nurse hostage for several hours, a Kane County Sheriff's Office spokesman said.

A standoff began about 1 p.m., with Tywon Salters, 21, of Chicago, a patient at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital since May 8, holed up with the female nurse in a room near the hospital’s emergency room after he stole the gun, officials said. Negotiators tried to persuade Salters to give himself up, but negotiations broke down and members of the SWAT team were sent in, Lt. Patrick Gengler said.

Salters was shot by an officer from the North Aurora Police Department about 4 p.m., authorities said. A shot fired from the 9mm handgun Salters had hit a SWAT officer and lodged in his bulletproof vest, Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said in a late-evening news conference. The officer was treated and released from the hospital.

The nurse was not injured. Some other people suffered minor injuries in the incident, and they were all treated and released, McMahon said.

Officials held off on announcing the shooting until about 6 p.m. to make sure Salters' family had been notified, Gengler sai Salters, 21, a Kane County jail inmate, was killed by a SWAT team Saturday afternoon after he stole a correctional officer's gun and held a Geneva hospital nurse hostage for several hours, according to police.

ters had been in Kane County custody since April 11, when he was arrested by Elgin police on a charge of possession of a stolen motor vehicle. Gengler did not say why Salters was being treated at the hospital nor how Salters was able to take the gun from the correctional officer. There were restraints in the hospital room, McMahon said.

The incident started on the third floor of the hospital, where Salters was a patient under guard by Kane County corrections officers. At one time, he held two different nurses hostage, the second one with him downstairs in a barricaded room near the emergency room, McMahon said. Investigators haven't figured how one nurse got away and the other ended up in the room with Salters, McMahon said.

During the standoff, the hospital's emergency treatment area was evacuated, Gengler said. Patients unable to leave on their own were taken to other hospitals by ambulance, he said.

Hostage negotiators talked by phone to Salters, and the “talks deteriorated,” McMahon said. The SWAT team decided to enter the room just before 4 p.m. At least one shot was fired by the North Aurora officer, killing Salters.

Illinois State Police are handling the investigation of what happened, Gengler and McMahon said.

"The entire process will be looked at in time," McMahon said.

After Salters took the hostages, part of the hospital was evacuated and the rest was sealed off. A large number of police and other emergency vehicles surrounded the hospital, with some officers in military-style gear, carrying rifles.

"We were able to move patients out of the ER," hospital spokeswoman Kimberly Waterman said. "Those that needed medical care were transferred to other hospitals."

The hospital's emergency room entrance was cordoned off, but police said Delnor personnel and ambulances were available nearby to take anyone needing emergency medical care to another hospital. Those with non-emergency medical issues were being asked to go to other hospitals.

The hospital lockdown was lifted following the shooting, and the ER started accepting patients at 6 p.m., Waterman said. Ambulances were to resume bringing patients to Delnor at 8 p.m.

"We do a lot of training (for situations like this)," Waterman said. "We work closely with our partners in law enforcement."

The identity and position of the nurse were not released. Gengler said she was with her family and was being cared for by hospital trauma personnel.