An 86-year-old woman in a Brooklyn hospital died Saturday after being assaulted by another patient for allegedly breaking social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to a report.
The incident could be New York City’s first coronavirus-related homicide, the New York Daily News reported. Autopsy results are pending.
Janie Marshall, 86, was involved in an altercation with another patient, a 32-year-old woman, around 2:07 p.m. inside the NYC Health and Hospitals/Woodhull in Brooklyn, NYPD said in a statement to Fox News.
Staff told police that Marshall was pushed to the ground, hit her head on the floor and lost consciousness briefly.
Emergency room nurses gather flowers donated to the hospital staff on a ramp outside Elmhurst Hospital Center's ER after a neighbor dropped them off, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The Queens borough hospital has been heavily taxed treating coronavirus patients in recent weeks. New York leads the nation in the number of cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is keeping a running tally. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
According to the Daily News, Marshall was in the hospital for a bowel obstruction and grabbed onto a metal stand while making her way down the hallway.
That’s when a woman identified by the newspaper as 32-year-old Cassandra Lundy, a seizure patient in a bed nearby, began complaining Marshall was not following social distancing. Lundy allegedly hit Marshall over the head, knocking her to the ground. She was pronounced dead at 5:40 p.m.
Lundy was issued a disorderly conduct summons by hospital police and was released before NYPD arrived, the Daily News reported, citing unnamed police sources. She lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant and has 17 prior arrests, on charges including drug possession, trespassing, assault and strangulation.
The hospital called 911 hours later to report the incident. NYPD officers responded to the hospital around 10:31 p.m., according to the NYPD statement to Fox News. An investigation is ongoing. A medical examiner is working to determine the cause of death.
"We are committed to ensuring a safe, health-focused environment in these very demanding times so our heroic health care workers can continue to deliver the quality, compassionate care New Yorkers need more than ever. We are collaborating with the NYPD in their investigation,” NYC Health and Hospitals said in a statement to the Daily News.
The statement did not clarify why the hospital's staff waited hours to call NYPD.
New York City recorded at least 33,768 confirmed cases, with 776 deaths from the coronavirus by Monday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University.
There are only six countries with more cases than New York City: United States, Italy, Spain, China, Germany, and France. Cases in New York City make up 56.5 percent of the cases in New York State.
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