MACON — Authorities have identified a Macon man they say killed himself early Thursday after a standoff with deputies that forced Middle Georgia’s largest hospital to evacuate its emergency room and divert ambulances.
Christopher Clyde Valentine Sr., 49, was armed with a pistol when he showed up at an open building that adjoins Atrium Health Navicent The Medical Center in downtown Macon shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday, officials said.
He barricaded himself inside a restroom in the office building for more than three hours. Meanwhile, Atrium Health Navicent’s staff cleared the emergency room and sent inbound ambulances to other hospitals.
“He was making comments, saying that he needed some help and that nobody was helping him,” Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said.
It was not immediately clear what kind of help Valentine, who walked with a crutch, was seeking or what prompted the incident.
“He made his way into a bathroom, a restroom, down a hallway just adjacent to the emergency room ... where he fired a couple of rounds through the door in the restroom,” Davis said.
Hospital police held Valentine at bay and alerted sheriff’s deputies, SWAT officers among them, who rushed to the scene, Davis said.
The sheriff said deputies then tried to begin a conversation with Valentine.
“He really didn’t want to talk much,” Davis said. “Even when we were setting up to talk, he fired off a couple of rounds.”
The sheriff said none of the officers was wounded, and none fired shots.
At one point, Davis said, the gunman asked to speak to him, as well as some deputies who Valentine apparently knew from having recently spent time in the county jail a few blocks away.
Davis said he spoke to Valentine, as did one of the deputies, “trying to get him to come out and get some help. But eventually, he was making some gestures with the firearm.”
Deputies had slipped a camera and a phone into the restroom to communicate with Valentine, but he never used the phone. He fired a shot at the camera.
“At some point, it was determined that he was becoming a little bit of a danger to himself or to the deputies outside,” and tear gas was used to disorient Valentine, Davis said. “At that point, he took his own life. ... That’s a sad end to something we don’t want to see.”
The sheriff said there was some indication that Valentine may have had substance-abuse issues and possibly mental health problems.
“He never really made it clear during the conversations as to what exactly the kind of help he was looking for,” Davis said. “Mainly, he was very reluctant to talk at all, if any.”
Davis said that early this year Valentine was released from jail, where he had been held on a probation violation.
Valentine was arrested in Macon on a shoplifting charge July 5 and, according to court documents, appears to have spent the past six months in jail on a $650 bond.
On Jan. 2, his court-appointed lawyer, in a motion asking that Valentine be released on his own recognizance, wrote that his client was “destitute” and “not able to obtain the funds to meet even this low bond. ... Efforts from friends and family have been to no avail.”
The sheriff said Valentine got out of jail Jan. 8.
Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones said that a relative of Valentine’s informed him that Valentine walked with a crutch because he was “partially paralyzed” from a gunshot wound he suffered “a long time ago.”
In a statement late Wednesday, hospital officials said: “We are thankful for the assistance of the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office. ... We are currently focused on communicating with our patients and their families, and our teammates, as their safety is our top priority.”
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