Heightened Security Planned at Hospital : Gangs: Extra guards are placed on duty, bulletproof glass is to be installed in wake of shooting at emergency room in Boyle Heights.

By PENELOPE McMILLAN

Oct. 17, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Bulletproof glass and extra guards were among new security measures announced Wednesday by officials of White Memorial Hospital, where gang members sprayed the emergency room entrance with bullets last weekend and injured one bystander.

“This kind of violent gang activity is brand new to White Memorial,” said Albert Deininger, vice president of the 377-bed facility in Boyle Heights. “But we take seriously our responsibility to provide a safe environment.”

A few buckshot holes remain in glass walls from the Friday night incident in which two gang members walked up to the emergency room, where a rival gang member was being treated, and opened fire.

A woman was injured, though not seriously, as she stood outside with a group of gang members. Bullets also shattered glass at the emergency room entrance and were embedded in three walls.

Los Angeles Police Detective Jack Forsman said the shooting remains under investigation. No one has been arrested.

The incident occurred two weeks after a gunfight in the street left bullet holes in a hospital wall.

Brian Johnston, medical director of emergency department, said Friday’s shooting surprised him. “We felt since we were neutral in all these gang battles, and served anyone who came, that we would be respected.”

Now his staff is “understandably anxious,” he said. “By the nature of what we do we have to be open. If someone comes to the hospital who is in bad shape they can’t go through barriers and obstacles. We have to keep the doors open and that makes us vulnerable.”

The emergency waiting room was relocated from the entrance area to a place with no street-facing windows. The triage area, where personnel determine which patients need treatment first, was also moved.

Security guards have been stationed at the emergency room.

Structural changes such as bulletproof sliding-glass entrance doors are also planned, hospital spokesman Mark Newmayr said, adding that replacing other glass walls with concrete is under consideration, along with construction of an outside retaining wall.

Johnston said he hoped these measures would help. “If this continues to happen, we may have to leave,” he said. “Getting shot at is not part of our job description. And it would be unethical to invite ill people or injured persons into an area that’s not secure.”