Alta View Hospital hostage incident

Last updated

The Alta View Hospital hostage incident began September 20, 1991, when Richard Worthington, armed with a shotgun, a .357 Magnum revolver, and sticks of dynamite arrived at Alta View Hospital in Sandy, Utah, in an attempt to kill Dr. Glade Curtis, who had performed a tubal ligation requested by his wife, Karen Worthington. [1] [2]

Worthington entered the Hospital's Women's Center and took as hostages two nurses, a patient giving birth, her sister, the father, and two newborn babies. [3] Curtis saw what was happening and hid in his office, where he called the police. [3] After Worthington took nurses Susan Woolley and Karla Roth to the parking lot, the police told him to freeze and Roth attempted to wrestle Worthington's shotgun from his hands and was fatally shot. [2] [3]

Worthington held the hostages for eighteen hours. [3] He was talked into surrendering and releasing the remaining hostages by Sergeant Don Bell and Detective Jill Candland of the Salt Lake City police department. [2] [3] Worthington was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison for the murder of Roth, and later committed suicide in his prison cell on November 11, 1993. [4]

The incident was portrayed in the 1992 TV movie Deliver Them From Evil: The Taking of Alta View, starring Harry Hamlin as Worthington, Teri Garr as Woolley and Terry O'Quinn as Bell. [5]

In November of 2022, a hostage incident happened in Herriman, Utah, that involved a suicidal man. SWAT were called to the scene for an hours-long standoff until the man, identified as Alma Worthington, an Utah National Guard veteran, opened fire on the authorities trying to evacuate the neighbors, but the SWAT took action and shot Worthington, killing him. A few weeks later, Alma Worthington was identified as Richard Worthington's son.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart</span> 2002 child abduction case in the U.S.

Elizabeth Ann Smart was kidnapped at age fourteen on June 5, 2002, by Brian Mitchell from her home in the Federal Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah. She was held captive by Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, on the outskirts of Salt Lake City, and later, in San Diego County, California. Her captivity lasted approximately nine months before she was discovered in Sandy, Utah, approximately 18 miles (29 km) from her home.

<i>John Q.</i> 2002 American thriller drama movie

John Q. is a 2002 American thriller drama film starring Denzel Washington, with co-stars Robert Duvall, Kimberly Elise, Anne Heche, James Woods, and Ray Liotta, directed by Nick Cassavetes. The film tells the story of John Quincy Archibald, a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and who finds out he is unable to receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it. He holds hostages at the hospital to force them to perform the operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SWAT</span> American law enforcement unit

In the United States, a SWAT team is a generic term for a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics.

<i>Rage</i> (King novel) 1977 Stephen King novel

Rage is a psychological thriller novel by American writer Stephen King, the first he published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was published in 1977 and then it was collected in the 1985 hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hi-Fi murders</span> 1974 crimes in Ogden, Utah

The Hi-Fi murders were the torture of five people resulting in three deaths during a robbery at the Hi-fi Shop, a home audio store in Ogden, Utah, on the evening of April 22, 1974. Several men entered the Hi-fi Shop shortly before closing time and began taking hostages. They were forced to drink corrosive drain cleaner, which the perpetrators believed would fatally poison their hostages, but instead caused burns to their mouths and throats. Further violence included kicking a pen into an ear and the brutal rape of an eighteen-year-old girl, before three of the victims were fatally shot. The two surviving victims were left with life-changing injuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1991 Sacramento hostage crisis</span> 1991 hostage crisis

On April 4, 1991, 41 employees and customers were taken hostage by four gunmen and held at a Good Guys! electronics store at the corner of 65th Street and Stockton Boulevard in Sacramento, California, near the Florin Mall for approximately eight hours. Near the end of the hostage crisis, six were killed: three hostages and three of the four hostage-takers. The fourth hostage-taker was captured by authorities, and an additional 14 hostages were injured during the crisis. To this day, the hostage crisis remains the largest hostage rescue operation in US history, with over 40 hostages having been held at gunpoint.

The Salt Lake City Public Library hostage incident occurred on March 5, 1994 in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, when Clifford Lynn Draper held several hostages on the second floor in the former main branch of the Salt Lake City Public Library, which now houses The Leonardo, a culture and arts center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salt Lake City Police Department</span> Municipal law enforcement agency in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

The Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) is the police department of Salt Lake City, Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alta View Hospital</span> Hospital in Sandy, Utah

Alta View Hospital is an Intermountain Healthcare member hospital located in Sandy, Utah, United States. In 2019, the hospital completed a renovation that resulted in a new emergency department, new inpatient physical therapy space and a rooftop helipad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newhall incident</span> Shootout near Santa Clarita, California

The Newhall incident, also called the Newhall massacre, was a shootout on April 5–6, 1970, in Valencia, California, between two heavily armed criminals and four officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). In less than five minutes, the four CHP officers were killed and another man was pistol-whipped in the deadliest day in California law enforcement history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LAPD Metropolitan Division</span> Division of the Los Angeles Police Department

Metropolitan Division, commonly referred to as Metro Division or just Metro, is an elite division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) under its Special Operations Group. Metropolitan Division is responsible for managing the LAPD's specialized crime suppression, K-9, mounted, and SWAT units, named "platoons".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtis Allgier</span> American murderer and white supremacist

Curtis Michael Allgier is an American white supremacist skinhead who is being held in the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah, for the murder of corrections officer Stephen Anderson.

<i>I Can Make You Love Me</i> 1993 American psychological horror film

I Can Make You Love Me, also known as Stalking Laura, is an American 1993 made-for-television psychological thriller film starring Richard Thomas and Brooke Shields. The film is based on the real-life story of American mass murderer Richard Farley, a former employee of ESL Incorporated whose romantic obsession and subsequent stalking of co-worker Laura Black culminated in the mass murder of several co-workers at ESL's headquarters in California, resulting in the first anti-stalking laws to be enacted in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyrone Mitchell</span> 20th-century American mass shooter (1955–1984)

Tyrone Mitchell was an American spree killer who fatally shot two students and wounded twelve others who were leaving 49th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles on February 24, 1984. Mitchell then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a double-barreled shotgun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1996 Honolulu hostage crisis</span> Hostage crisis in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1996

The 1996 Honolulu hostage crisis occurred on February 6, 1996, in Sand Island, Honolulu, Hawaii, when 28-year-old John Miranda took hostages at the Seal Masters of Hawaii building, his former place of employment. During the hostage crisis, two hostages were injured, one seriously. Miranda was the only fatality during the crisis itself. However, a few weeks after the event, he was found to have murdered his former girlfriend prior to the crisis.

On 5 June 2017, Yacqub Khayre, a 29-year-old Somali-born Australian, murdered a receptionist and held a sex worker hostage at the Buckingham International Serviced Apartments, located in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. In a subsequent shoot-out with a police tactical unit, Khayre was killed and three police officers were wounded. Police consider the siege an act of terrorism.

On July 26, 2017, Jeff Payne, a then detective with the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD), arrested nurse Alex Wubbels at the University of Utah Hospital after she refused to illegally draw blood from an unconscious patient. Footage of the incident released on August 31, 2017, went viral online. The SLCPD announced policy changes which would affect how police should handle situations involving drawing blood, and the hospital announced it would also change its police protocol to avoid repeating the incident. Utah lawmakers made a bill to amend the blood draw policy of Utah law enforcement, which Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed into law on March 15, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 Stockton bank robbery</span> 2014 bank robbery and shootout in Stockton, California

On July 16, 2014, three armed suspects robbed a Bank of the West branch in Stockton, California. After taking three hostages, the suspects fled the scene, pursued by officers of the Stockton Police Department (SPD) in an hour-long pursuit that ended in a shootout. Over the course of the incident, almost 1,000 rounds were exchanged between police and the suspects.

A three-day prison takeover and stand-off took place in 2018 between the Indonesian National Police and inmates convicted of terrorist activities who were imprisoned at the Police's Mobile Brigade Corps's headquarters in Depok, West Java, Indonesia. The inmates took control over one prison block and 6 police officers were taken hostages. As a result of the standoff, five police officers died, with one inmate dead after being shot by the police. Four policemen were also injured in the incident. The Islamic State claimed its fighters were in the standoff. Another policeman was stabbed to death at the headquarters of the elite Mobile Brigade police after the siege by a terrorist who was later shot and killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soldiers of Aryan Culture</span> White supremacist prison gang in the United States

The Soldiers of Aryan Culture (SAC), sometimes referred to as Soldiers of the Aryan Culture and Soldiers of an Aryan Culture, is a large American white supremacist prison gang.

References

  1. Funk, Marianne (May 9, 1992). "Richard Worthington Blames Ex-Wife for Alta View Siege". Deseret News . Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Mathews, Jay (September 22, 1991). "Utah Man Surrenders After Killing Nurse, Holding 9 Hostages for 17 Hours". The Washington Post .
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Abcarian, Robin (October 6, 1991). "A Web of Terror : Survivors of Seige[sic] at Utah Maternity Ward Try to Understand What Made Richard Worthington Do What He Did". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  4. West, Brian (November 12, 1993). "Worthington Hangs Self in Nevada Prison Cell". Deseret News . Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  5. O'Steen, Kathleen (April 28, 1992). "Deliver Them from Evil: The Taking of Alta View". Variety . Retrieved August 11, 2020.

40°34′40″N111°51′14″W / 40.57778°N 111.85389°W / 40.57778; -111.85389