St. George – Wednesday, just after 3 p.m., the St. George Police arrested a hospital patient for allegedly brandishing a pocket knife and threatening three hospital personnel workers with it.
“No individuals were hurt,” St. George Police Sgt. Sam Despain said, “although he did threaten them with the use of a pocket knife.”
According to a probable cause statement, Rex Douglas Roberts, 58, of LaVerkin, admitted himself to Dixie Regional Medical Center for a substance abuse issue around 6:30 a.m. He reportedly asked if he could smoke and became agitated when he was told no. He than pulled out a pocket knife and threatened to cut his IV out, then threatened staff and stated he would kill anyone who came too close.
The hospital staff left the room. When they returned the knife was put away and Roberts was sedated, though he started to become aggressive again as he woke up. He stated he only took the knife out to cut his IV out and never threatened anyone.
Roberts was arrested and booked into the Purgatory Correctional Facility yesterday afternoon on three third-degree felony aggravated assault charges. His bail is set at $15,000.
St. George News Assistant Editor Mori Kessler contributed to this article.
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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.
So where was hospital security? Out in the parking lot as usual?
I guess the staff vehicles need to be protected more so than employees.
Security at this hospital is a joke.
Actually, they don’t protect employee vehicles. They ticket them for parking in the wrong spots. Security is also stationed on the Medical Center Dr cross walk to yell at people with pre-recorded messages on bull horns that can’t be heard across the street about how they’re supposed to pick up those retarded flags and wave them like an epileptic to prove to the hit-and-run drivers that they’re alive and crossing the road.
Watch your mouth double tap you never know who is going to save you at the hospital!
Tap are you really that stupid? If you have are that fence then shut up!
Sorry for typo.. tap just shut up you idiot !
Save him? Only if the diagnosis is a simple one and most the time they still can’t figure it out.
Well, a lot of the staff are hiding in thier cars or in some other hiding place getting it on with each other or thier patients spouses. And don’t try to say it doesn’t happen. It happens ALL THE TIME!!
Be nice to doubletap 🙂
Someone trying to get help shouldn’t end up in jail.
Wow some harsh words for the staff by some very bitter people here. But then again they probably haven’t a clue as what it takes to deal with belligerent patients that expect their sniffles to be cured or that they didn’t get all the pain meds they wanted when they had phantom stomach pains when they eat crap food all day. Good luck getting any sympathy.
I will stand by my comment. The security at this hospital is a complete joke. Example: The River Road campus has been declared a “non-smoking campus”, this includes no smoking in the parking lots or anywhere on DRMC property. I have on numerous occasions observed the security personnel out in the parking lot actually walk by people who are smoking. On one occasion, there was a security officer giving a person directions to the ER entrance WHILE the visitor was smoking. I have observed people sitting at the south entrance bench smoking away while security officers merely walked by them as they scanned the parking lot.
And to Kristin Schwiermann: about the only one who will save my life at this hospital will be my physician, and certainly NOT some cop-wanna-be security officer at this facility. I am a Vietnam combat veteran and a retired law enforcement officer who has been saving my own life myself. If the hospital really wanted to get serious about having REAL security…they would hire fully trained AND ARMED personnel who would better know how to deal with those life threatening situations if and when they happen. Calling local police officers for assistance would take minutes to arrive. A crazed drugged up patient with a knife would hurt, or worse, kill someone in seconds. And I will watch my mouth very well thank you.
” I am a Vietnam combat veteran and a retired law enforcement officer who has been saving my own life myself.”
Wow, your posts speak so loudly, that I have trouble in believe this statement. I think you are full of bologna, and that is being nice about it.
Wow. Smoking in a non-smoking area. And security personnel did not go on a rampage.
Imagine that. My whole sense of security is so rattled, I’m going to spend the weekend in
my underground bunker.