Milwaukee County prosecutors have charged a 36-year-old man in connection to an assault May 4 at Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital on Milwaukee’s east side. The attack left a physician assistant with serious head injuries.
Kenneth L. Flagg, of Milwaukee, is accused of beating the physician assistant repeatedly in the head with a battery power block, causing several lacerations to the health care worker’s head and jaw, according to a criminal complaint filed May 5.
Flagg has been charged with one count of bodily harm to a person who works in a health care facility and one count of substantial battery, both felonies, in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. If convicted of the more serious charge, Flagg faces up to six years in prison.
The attack occurred before 5 a.m. on Monday, May 4, inside Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital, 2301 N. Lake Drive.
The physician assistant, who Milwaukee police say is 38 years old, told officers he was treating Flagg for anxiety and insomnia the morning of the attack, according to the criminal complaint.
He was walking with Flagg in the hallway and asking whether he wanted his medication ordered to a pharmacy when, without warning, Flagg attacked him, the complaint alleges. Flagg had brought a Milwaukee Tool battery with him into the hospital and allegedly used it to hit the health care worker repeatedly in the head, the complaint says.
Video reviewed by police showed the attack continued even after the physician assistant fell to the ground, until another hospital employee tackled the assailant, according to the complaint. Hospital staff subdued Flagg until police arrived, the complaint says.
The physician assistant, who is identified only by his initials in the complaint, suffered lacerations to the head that required stitches.
Health care and social service workers are about five times more likely to experience injury from workplace violence than workers overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hospital workers are often exposed to high-risk situations by nature of their job. They may come into contact with people on mood-altering medications and drugs or experiencing conditions or disease progression that cause agitation and violent behaviors.
In a statement, Ascension declined to discuss the specifics of Monday’s incident due to privacy concerns but said the safety and well-being of its employees, patients and visitors were its highest priorities.
“Across our Ascension Wisconsin facilities, we continually assess and adapt our violence prevention and security protocols which include strategies such as visible security measures, de-escalation training, threat assessment tools to identify risks early, and guidance from cross-functional Workplace Violence Prevention Committees,” the statement said.
Other recent attacks at Columbia St. Mary’s in Milwaukee include a 2024 incident when a hospital security guard was stabbed in a bathroom. In 2018, a woman leaving the hospital was stabbed more than a dozen times by a stranger in a parking garage of the hospital.
Reporter Sarah Volpenhein can be reached at svolpenhei@usatodayco.com or 414-607-2159.
This story was updated to add new information.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee man charged in attack on Columbia St. Mary’s employee
Reporting by Sarah Volpenhein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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