Police say patient shot man shot in parking lot of Hamilton Medical Center in Dalton, Ga.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

photo Hamilton Medical Center in Dalton, Ga.

A man was arrested Sunday after a shooting on the top floor of the parking deck at Hamilton Medical Center in Dalton, Ga., police said.

Andrew Desimone, 24, was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm after Kevin Brafford, 27, was shot. Brafford is in stable condition in intensive care at the hospital, Dalton Police spokesman Bruce Frazier said.

Frazier said Desimone, a patient at the hospital, left his room about 5 a.m. today without being released. Hamilton Medical Center public safety officers began looking for him, Frazier said.

Brafford was visiting a relative who was a patient and went to the parking deck apparently to smoke a cigarette. Police believe Brafford asked Desimone if he had a lighter, and Desimone pulled a gun out of his car, shot Brafford in the abdomen and drove home, Frazier said.

Brafford collapsed in a stairwell, where he was found by the hospital public safety officers who were looking for Desimone, Frazier said.

Officers from the Dalton Police Department arrested Desimone at his home after a citizen called 911 with information about his whereabouts. Further charges against Desimone are possible, Frazier said.

Investigators think the incident was random and that Desimone and Brafford did not have a previous connection, Frazier said.

Desimone was arrested by the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office in September for making a terroristic threat and pointing a firearm at another person, and had been charged in 2008 with carrying a deadly weapon, obstruction of an officer, simple assault and reckless conduct. Personnel at the Whitfield County jail did not know the status of these cases.