A nurse was shot dead during a robbery in her hospital parking lot by a patient having a “mental health crisis,” officials said.
Ada Doss, a 27-year-old married mother of two, was walking to her car during a shift change at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on Tuesday when she was approached by Mathew James Taylor, 41, who’d been dropped off by a friend who knew he needed help, Al.com reported.
Taylor approached the nurse with a gun, demanded her purse — and then fatally shot her, officials said.
He then callously went through the dead mom’s belongings before cops found him just feet from her body, Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit Capt. Jack Kennedy told reporters at a press conference.
Taylor was quickly taken into custody. He had no connection to Doss, who was declared dead at the scene.
“This tragic crime is a direct result of a mental health crisis that, let me be clear, could have happened anywhere but regrettably it happened in our parking lot,” DCH spokesman Rick Plummer said.
“An unhealthy man did a horrific thing, and I know we’re all feeling fear and anxiety right now,” he added.
A family friend dropped Taylor off at the hospital earlier in the day at Taylor’s own request because he “needed help,” said Kennedy, the police captain.
But Taylor never entered the hospital and instead “loitered on DCH’s campus for several hours.”
Just before he shot Doss around 4 p.m., Taylor tried to rob another woman, but she was already in her vehicle and able to drive away, Kennedy said.
“For no apparent reason or for no known reason, he decided to engage in violent assaults,” Kennedy said. “The entire encounters from both victims were less than 10 to 15 minutes.”
Nobody close to Taylor knows how Taylor came to possess the gun. He has no prior criminal history.
“We have no reason to believe anyone provided him a firearm for this act,” Kennedy said of the killer who had no prior criminal history.
“It’s a tragedy,” Kennedy said. “Everyone needs to maintain situational awareness.”
Taylor was charged with capital murder and is being held without bond in the Tuscaloosa County Jail.
