Tim Grooms, 59, was shot on the seventh floor of the hospital on Walton Way, according to authorities.
Charles William Gorrell, 85, of Sudlow Lake Road in Aiken, is charged with one count of murder and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, according to Sheriff?s Capt. Scott Peebles in a media statement.
Gorrell is being held without bond at the Richmond County Jail, Peebles said.
According to Peebles, Grooms is the nephew of Gorrell?s wife, who was being treated at University for an undisclosed condition. The two men had been involved in a long-standing dispute over family members, he said.
Grooms was shot at least twice in the upper body, Peebles said, adding that the sheriff?s office responded to a call of ?shots fired? at 3:09 p.m.
Hospital spokeswoman Rebecca Sylvester said the shooting took place after the victim and a male family member had an argument in a mutual relative?s room on the hospital?s general medicine floor. The patient was not injured. After the shooting, the suspect immediately put down the gun and surrendered to hospital security, Sylvester said. The person was in the custody of hospital security when Richmond County sheriff?s deputies arrived. There were no witnesses to the shooting except the people in the room, she said.
People inside the hospital at the time reacted with alarm and disbelief.
Sharbae Walker was in the ICU waiting room on the sixth floor when she heard running from the floor above her.
A voice then came over the speaker saying the building was on lock down.
?We were scared,? she said. ?We all looked at each other, wondering what was going on.?
Someone in the room got a phone call from a friend on the seventh floor who said there had been a shooting. Walker said they were nervous, but commended the hospital?s quick reaction.
?The hospital handled it very well,? she said.
There are no metal detectors or pat downs to get into the hospital, which officials at other area hospitals said is standard procedure. University does have its own security force, which were the first responders in this case.
Sylvester said no one else in the hospital was in any danger. She saidthe hospital will re-evaluate security and procedures, which she said they do when incidents occur.
?We work and we train everyday to respond to these types of things,? she said. ?Certainly we will look at it to see if we could have done things differently.?
Peebles said an autopsy on Grooms will likely be done Wednesday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab.
Reach Summer Moore at (706) 823-3339 or
summer.moore@augustachronicle.com
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