Questions raised after patient armed with gun shot by off-duty police officer at hospital in Gary

GARY, Ind. (WLS) -- There are developments in a hospital shooting in Lake County, Indiana.

Authorities say a patient armed with a gun was shot and injured by an off-duty police officer at a hospital in Gary.

Questions are being raised about how is a gun is getting inside a hospital after recent similar incidents.

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It was about 11:55 p.m. Tuesday when a man who was at Methodist Northlake Hospital in Gary for treatment of mental health issues ended up being shot. Police say he brought a gun into the hospital, and when he pulled it out, security staff responded.

Someone inside Methodist Northlake Hospital called police for help after the patient apparently became agitated and wanted to leave. According to the patient's family, he came there from another facility, but when he tried to leave, hospital personnel insisted he stay.

While there are apparently no metal detectors at the hospital entrance, guns are prohibited inside. Hospital security consultant Bill Marcisz says there's a good reason for that.

"Firearms are they represent a a risk, particularly when somebody has a firearm and they're in a an aggravated state of mind or they're they get bad news or whatever the situation may be," Marcisz said.

Security consultants say a man with a gun represents a danger to others and also himself.

The Gary shooting is the latest of numerous incidents in the Chicago area recently where someone has brought a gun into the hospital. Consultants say hospitals have varying degrees of security at the entrance. Some other Chicago-area hospitals do have metal detectors. The recent shooting of two Chicago police officers at Swedish Hospital involved a suspect who underwent numerous searches, but still managed to bring in a gun. Last August, a hospital employee brought a gun into UIC hospital despite metal detectors at the doors.

"You would you would like to have some sort of a screening process that would have picked up on that firearm," Marcisz said. "It depends on how long that patient had been there."

According to the patient's family, he has been transferred to the University of Chicago hospital for treatment. They said he was stable.