The man who pulled out a handgun inside a hospital room at M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital and caused the facility to go into a lockdown took the weapon from his sister after assaulting her, a court filing alleges.

A spokesperson for the city of Edina confirmed to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the suspect is 65-year-old Larry Sharp.

Around 2:55 p.m. Tuesday, authorities were called to a report of a person with a gun at M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital. The hospital went into lockdown while authorities secured the facility.

According to a search warrant application filed Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court, Sharp and his sister were visiting their mother, who was receiving treatment at Southdale Hospital.

The siblings got into an argument over the power of attorney of their mother, and Sharp’s sister told police he struck her eight to 10 times in the face, head and throat before throwing her into a chair, the filing states.

Sharp then allegedly took a pistol from his sister’s waist, pointed it at her and said he was “going to kill” her. He left the room and placed the gun on a cart outside the door, the warrant states.

Sharp’s sister took her gun back and placed it in her bag; police later collected it as evidence.

In a statement provided to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, M Health Fairview said it does not allow weapons at any of its facilities.

Edina police tracked pings of Sharp’s cell phone and discovered he was headed toward his home in Independence, where he was taken into custody on suspicion of second-degree assault.

Investigators requested to search Sharp’s home for firearms, ammunition, clothing, cell phones and documents that could be related to the case, and a warrant receipt indicates officers recovered two handguns, three magazines and two boxes of ammunition. Sharp has a license to carry a firearm, the filing notes.

The lockdown lasted about an hour.

Ericka Helling, an ICU nurse at M Health Fairview Southdale, says staffers jumped into action.

“We had volunteers and others that were shuffled by our staff into locked rooms,” she says. “These are people in the building without a plan, but knowing they need to protect visitors.”

An M Health Fairview spokesperson, in an emailed statement, says it’s made “significant investments” in secure entrances, weapons detection systems, and an increased officer presence.

Mike Olson, a former U.S. Secret Service agent and now the owner of a Minneapolis-based security firm, says services like metal detectors could help.

But he believes additional security personnel—more people on the ground—is a good step.

“Certainly, having a gun inside a hospital is a concerning event,” Olson, owner of 360 Security Services, says. “If we had the budget and the resources and I was a hospital, I would want to staff it with off duty police officers.”
 
Helling says there is a new weapons detection system in the hospital’s emergency room.

“We do have a weapons detection system in our emergency department that’s just been launched two weeks ago,” she notes. “I did talk with a security guard last week about it, and he noticed in the first two days of operation, they saw two knives that were observed and asked the person to take it back to their car, and they did. Not a problem.”

It’s unclear how anyone was able to get a gun into the hospital, which bans firearms.

Helling hopes that a panic button for staff will be added by September and that more metal detectors will be installed at additional entrances.

“A button that I wear on my chest that I can push, that is silent, that alerts the security staff of my GPS, my location,” she explains. “I mean, all of us want to be safe when we’re at work, when we’re patients, when we’re vulnerable.”

Formal charges have not been filed as of late Wednesday afternoon.