Proposed legislation could result in harsher penalties for people who cut off their ankle monitors and require notification to law enforcement and other officials when a parolee is allowed to visit a hospital.
The bills, announced Monday in Dallas by state and local officials, also would make it a third-degree felony to assault a hospital worker in a hospital. The legislation was spurred by a shooting at Methodist Dallas Medical Center in October that killed nurse Katie Annette Flowers and social worker Jacqueline Ama Pokuaa.
The accused gunman, Nestor Hernandez, was a parolee with an ankle monitor who had permission to be at the hospital for the birth of his child, officials said. He had previously cut off his monitor after serving time in prison for an aggravated robbery conviction. Methodist Health System’s police chief has said the police had no warning Hernandez would be at the hospital.
