Family who witnessed stabbings in Longview hospital tells what they saw

LONGVIEW, TX (KLTV) - A devoted nurse is dead and four other people are wounded after an attack at the Ambulatory Surgery Center at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview on Tuesday morning at around 7 a.m.

Police responded to the scene within minutes after receiving calls about stabbings occurring in the surgery center, and though the suspect fled the scene of the stabbings, they were able to apprehend him just blocks away within a very short time.

The suspect, identified as Kyron Rayshaun Templeton, 22, of Longview, fled but was taken into custody a short while later on Sixth Street in Longview. There was a scuffle during his arrest, but no officers were injured. He is now charged with murder and four counts of aggravated assault. He is being held on $2.6 million bond.

One East Texas family arrived at Good Shepherd around 5:30 Tuesday morning because their six-year-old daughter was scheduled for surgery. They say everything was running smoothly until about 7 a.m., when they witnessed a young man, now identified as Templeton, stab two people just feet away from where they were standing.

The Jacksons say they were waiting in the hospital's ambulatory surgical center when they heard people screaming. They then saw Templeton entering the building.

"He was pushing and shoving, it appeared, but now I know that is not what he was doing," said Jana Jackson.

"I saw him coming out with the knife in his hand. I just got up and stood there. I didn't know what he was going to do, so we just waited to see. I don't know what I would have done if he had come at me, but I didn't want him near my girls," said Chad Jackson.

The Jacksons say they watched as Gail Sandidge left a patient to see what was causing all of the commotion.

"She came around the corner and he stabbed her, and we saw that," said Jana.

"She was just saying he got me or I'm hurt, he got me, and that's when we realized there was blood all on the front of her scrubs," she added.

Afterwards, they say Templeton came running in their direction.

"All he kept saying was, 'You're not going to kill my mama, you're not going to kill my mama' and that's all he kept saying and when he got, like my wife said, about three or four feet from us, he had a death grip on the knife and he was just muttering and his eyes were kind of wild-looking. It was just, he was very confused," Chad recalls.

The Jacksons say hospital staff moved patients and their families into safe areas until given the ok to leave.

"Later on we saw them performing CPR and it was chaotic, but like my wife said, the staff there, they did everything they could to make sure the kids, adults, patients, everybody...was as safe as could be."

They say now they will be keeping Gail's family in their prayers as well as the other four who were injured while trying to explain to their young daughters what exactly had happened.

"We're just telling them there's bad people out there. There's not a lot of things we can do about the craziness in the world. That's why we go to church, they pray, they say their prayers every night. What more can you say?" Chad said.

All patients with surgeries scheduled for today and tomorrow at Good Shepherd Medical Center have been rescheduled for a later date. The Jacksons say they will return to this hospital for their daughter's surgery, because they believe hospital staff did everything they could have done to keep everyone safe.

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