LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Raymond Lovett has been accused of killing Leighton Whitfield— and Lovett will be due back in court in November.
Wednesday morning's shooting at CHI St. Vincent Hospital in Sherwood led to a massive response from several law enforcement departments.
"Active shooter events are something that we've seen increasingly growing across the country," Jefferson Co. Sheriff Lafayette Woods said.
Sheriff Woods said that many of these shootings happen in public places like schools, churches, and hospitals— but no matter when or where it happens, he said his department is always ready to respond immediately.
"We've got some resources that we can deploy at a moment's notice for an event that happened. so generally speaking, we were always alerted of something that happens in state, just so we can be aware of it," he said.
Even though his department didn't respond to the shooting at CHI St. Vincent on Wednesday, Sheriff Woods said they still got the alert.
"We felt as though the length of time it would take us to get there that you had agencies that were closer than we were, that were actually going to respond, and that was adequate enough to kind of neutralize the threat," he explained.
They're always ready if that call does come, and their special response team trains on a weekly basis for a crisis like this one.
Another line of defense the department has in place is teaching people within the community.
"We just put one on a few months ago, with the courthouse staff in Jefferson County. It was really mind-blowing, just to see how individuals respond generally to an event," he said.
Sheriff Woods said that's the best preparation you can do.
"I think it'd be very helpful to saving lives and to utilize me as a shooting event before it really erupts," he said.
We reached out to Sherwood's CHI St. Vincent to get an update on their safety measures moving forward, but hospital officials told us they're still reviewing what happened before considering any changes.