Minute of silence to be held Wednesday for healthcare workers killed in Dallas hospital shooting
DALLAS - A minute of silence will be held across North Texas on Wednesday to honor the two healthcare workers killed in a shooting at Methodist Dallas Medical Center on Saturday.
The two women killed were simply doing their jobs. One former Methodist nurse who worked alongside one of them said she rushed to the hospital after the shooting.
FOX 4 is now learning more about the two senselessly shot and killed while on the job: 45-year-old social worker Jacqueline Pokuaa and 63-year-old nurse Katie "Annette" Flowers.
Olivia Delavega is a former Methodist nurse and worked with Flowers. She left Methodist less than two years ago to start her own private practice. She still receives updates from the hospital.
Annette Flowers (Photo courtesy the Flowers family)
On Saturday, Delavega received a text message about an active shooter. Shortly after, she got one that said it was all clear, but she learned there were casualties.
"I immediately went to the hospital. I just felt like I had to. I had to go and see them," she said. "It was nurses who had just seen the most horrific thing you can ever imagine."
Delavega says she assisted the traumatized staff she worked with for more than a decade.
"Tears and mascara running down their faces. It was surreal," she recalled. "Moving patients around to try and get them in a place that they felt comfortable and safe."
The suspected gunman, Nestor Hernandez, was a convicted felon who was on parole for aggravated robbery and was wearing an ankle monitor when he was granted permission by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to be at the hospital for the birth of his child. Dallas police say he previously violated that parole twice.
According to an arrest affidavit, Hernandez accused his girlfriend of infidelity and began pistol-whipping her while at the hospital. He said, "We are both going to die today… Whoever comes in this room is going to die with us."
Dallas police say Pokuaa entered to provide routine services when Hernandez shot her. Flowers looked into the room and was also shot.
Jacqueline Ama Pokuaa (Source: UTA)
Methodist Police Department Sgt. Robert Rangel shot Hernandez in the leg. He was taken into custody before he was able to shoot anyone else in the mother/baby unit.
"That’s devastating," Delavega said. "Like, I cannot imagine the nurses that were sitting at that nurses station hearing that this man was on his way out there."
Pokuaa received her master of social work in 2019 specializing in mental health and substance abuse from UT Arlington. Her family lives in the Eest African country of Ghana.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins tweeted he is working to facilitate a visa from Ghana for Pokuaa's mother for her funeral.
Flowers’ family says she had been a nurse for 41 years and worked at methodist for 14 years. She was a single mother to four children and had five grandchildren. The family has put up a GoFundMe page to help with the cost of her funeral and other arrangements.
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The Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council announced it would observe a minute of silence from noon to 12:01 on Wednesday in honor of the employees.
"During the one-minute time frame on October 26, we would like everyone to focus on two important thoughts," Love said. "First, offer your prayers and condolences to Jackie Pokuaa and Annette Flowers and to their families. Second, ask yourself, ‘What can we do to help stop this violence?’" said Stephen Love, the president and CEO of the DFW Hospital Council.
The hospital council says it will be an opportunity for North Texans to reflect on the loss of caregivers and healthcare workers, along with the growing rate of workplace violence in hospitals since the start of the pandemic.
Two vigils that were initially planned for Wednesday have since been canceled.
The hospital system said Monday it is adding uniformed officers around the building, and it has scheduled additional meetings for its Methodist Dallas Medical Center Safety and Security Steering committee.