Inset: Shamon Pearce (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Grady Memorial Hospital (WSB).
A Georgia man allegedly high on crack was found naked in a stroke patient’s room at an Atlanta hospital in a case of attempted sexual assault of a sleeping patient.
Shamon Pearce, 24, faces charges of aggravated assault, battery and misdemeanor sexual battery in the attack of the 47-year-old woman, online jail booking records show.
The incident happened on Sept. 27 at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, police said. Nurses initially spotted Pearce smoking from a crack pipe in an elevator before he entered the room of a patient recovering from a stroke, reported Michael Seiden, with Atlanta’s ABC affiliate WSB, citing the police incident report.
The victim woke up as the suspect was trying to put a sheet over her head, the report said the woman told police. When she asked what he was doing, he became aggressive, climbed onto her and told her to be quiet and not move, the report said she told police, the outlet reported.
“She then realized what he was doing,” according to the report. “She began moving and telling him to get off her and they both fell off the bed. She tried to scream for someone to help.”
Hospital staff found the suspect naked and the patient on the floor of the room, the report said.
A nurse took images on her phone and called for other nurses to help, the document said.
The nurses tried to lock Pearce in the room to prevent him from escaping, but he overpowered them, ran down the hall naked and went down a set of stairs, the news station reported.
Pearce allegedly hid in a basement trash can for an hour before finding a used hospital gown, putting it on and walking out of the facility. He was arrested nearby, allegedly initially telling officers he had been discharged from the hospital hours earlier, according to the incident report.
He later allegedly confessed, telling police, “he got on the bed with her and rolled over on her, he was high and smoking drugs and he was just trying something new,” the report said.
In a statement, the hospital said, “The safety of our patients, staff, and visitors is our top priority.”
The hospital outlined additional security steps, including increasing security staff throughout the hospital, locking inpatient units and requiring badges to access the area. Hospital officials also said visitors must contact the nurse’s station to enter any unit.
“A robust visitor management system will be installed,” the statement said. “This system will ensure we can account for every person inside the hospital. We will be implementing an alert system that equips staff with wearable mobile panic buttons for emergency situations.”
Pearce was being held at the Fulton County Jail with bail set at $10,000, online records show.
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