On July 22, 2023, at approximately 11 a.m., law enforcement was called to Legacy Health Good Samaritan after hospital security guard, Bobby Smallwood, was shot in the neck by a hospital visitor just outside the maternity unit. The hospital also said a second staff member was hit by shrapnel in the shooting. Hospital staff treated that employee, who was released on Saturday. The employee has not been identified.
According to the victim's family lawsuit, staffers at Portland’s Legacy Good Samaritan hospital made five separate complaints to administrators against the man later charged with his murder. Calles allegedly threatened violence and tried to strike a nurse while saying, “If you guys keep acting like this, someone is going to get killed around here” – after accompanying his partner to the hospital on 19 July. All which could have been violations of Legacy’s policy prohibiting workplace violence and should have resulted in Calles’s immediate removal, but administrators initially responded to the complaints by providing “support options” over email, per the lawsuit.
According to the suit, nurses resolved to have Calles removed from the hospital on the morning of 22 July. Smallwood was working that day as an unarmed guard and had received instructions to wait nearby in the hallway while other hospital security staff searched the room of Calles’s partner, finding ammunition and multiple guns.
The lawsuit alleges that, for more than 40 minutes, Smallwood’s colleagues failed to notify him of their dangerous discovery – or their having learned that Calles had an additional gun in his possession. Hospital staffers encountered Calles prior to his departure – and before they had declared a “code silver” that would have alerted everyone there of a potential shooting threat, the lawsuit said.
After the shooting, PoniaX Calles fled the hospital out the front door. Law enforcement officers entered the hospital and tried to locate Calles and any possible victims, setting up a perimeter after learning the gunman left the area. They then learned that the suspect may have gone to the Fred Meyer store at 100 Northwest 20th Place. Police, meanwhile, determined the suspect was in a vehicle, which they were able to stop near Northeast 181st Avenue and Northeast Everett Street in Gresham. During the stop, police fired shots, ending with Calles being found dead.
The hospital shelter-in-place was lifted about 4:15 p.m.
The suspect, 33-year-old PoniaX Kane Calles, according to Gresham Police Department, Calles previously went by the name Reginald Kane Jackson, changing his name in 2019.
Calles held a history of arrests in Oregon including charges for Interfering with a Peace Officer, Reckless Driving, Trespassing, Disorderly Conduct, Assault II and Assault IV
In 2015, Calles was determined by the Close Street Supervision as a threat to the safety of the community and expected to re-offend. The evaluation came after an altercation between Calles and another at a NE Portland restaurant. According to court docs, the victim was stabbed in the face by Calles after he chased two females into the restaurant.
The family of Bobby Smallwood is suing the medical facility for $35m in damages, saying it ignored warning signs that could have prevented the killing if addressed.
Days after Smallwood’s shooting death, the health network that runs Legacy Good Samaritan announced it would add metal detectors with bag searches at each of its hospitals’ entrances, equip lead security officers with stun guns and weigh whether any more measures were necessary.
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