Kane inmate grabs gun, holds Geneva hospital employee hostage: Cops

Kane County jail inmate being treated at Delnor Community Hospital grabbed the gun of a corrections officer guarding him and took a hospital emplooyee hostage, a Kane County Sheriff's spokesman said.

The inmate, whose name has not been released, was taken to the the hospital for treatment, said sheriff's spokesman Lt. Patrick Gengler. While there about 1 p.m., he grabbed the gun of the Kane County correctional officer who was chaperoning him. The inmate was still holding that gun on a female hospital employee and keeping her hostage a little before 4 pm.

Both inmate and hostage were in a room in the lower level of the hospital, not far from the hospital's emergency treatment area, Gengler said. Although there was a lockdown at the hospital, there was believed to be no threat to anyone else in the building.

No one has been injured, and it was not clear if the inmate had taken other people hostage who later escapted. The name and job of the hostage was not being released.

Hospital spokeswoman Kimberly Waterman asked people to not come to the facility to visit patients until the situation is ended.

The hospital's emergency room entrance was cordoned off.

Earlier, a hospital security official said the building had been closed off, with no one being allowed to enter, but provided no other details. At least a half-dozen squad cars with lights flashing were parked near the ER entrance, on the north side of the Randall Road campus, and a canine unit and Kane County Emergency Management Agency personnel were seen entering the building.

Simultaneously, people could be seen exiting from doors not typically used for entering or exiting the hospital.

A medical employee leaving the building declined to discuss what was going on inside other than to say, "It's not good."