Emergency responders praised as shooting victims recover

Six of the people injured in the shooting at Planned Parenthood were taken to Penrose-St. Francis Hospital, even as the hospital itself was in lockdown.

Part of that lockdown was standard precaution, due to the hospital’s proximity to the scene of the shooting. The lockdown was lifted once the suspect was taken into custody.

“Whenever we get a shooting victim and the shooter isn’t apprehended, we go into lockdown,” said Chris Valentine, spokesman at St. Francis-Penrose Hospital. “We do it to protect our patients.”

All of the patients taken to that hospital survived. While their individual conditions were not released, KRDO NewsChannel 13 was able to learn that all six suffered gunshot wounds.

Memorial Hospital issued a statement late Friday night that one of the three patients taken there had been released.

Additional doctors, nurses and technicians were called in to handle the increase of patients into the Emergency Room.

Colorado Springs Fire Chief Chris Riley praised the work of first responders from multiple agencies Friday night.

“In any given day, this is what the firefighters could be facing,” he said. “Our firefighters, first responders and police officers were heroic today.”

It’s a heroism, he said, saved many lives.