Man shot in parking lot of Ga. hospital

Dec. 18--A man was arrested Sunday after a shooting on the top floor of the parking deck at Hamilton Medical Center in Dalton, Ga., police said.

Andrew Desimone, 24, was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm after Kevin Bradford, 27, was shot. Bradford is in stable condition in intensive care at the hospital, Dalton Police spokesman Bruce Frazier said.

Frazier said Desimone, a patient at the hospital, left his room about 5 a.m. today without being released. Hamilton Medical Center public safety officers began looking for him, Frazier said.

Bradford was visiting a relative who was a patient and went to the parking deck apparently to smoke a cigarette. Police believe Bradford asked Desimone if he had a lighter, and Desimone pulled a gun out of his car, shot Bradford in the abdomen and drove home, Frazier said.

Bradford collapsed in a stairwell, where he was found by the hospital public safety officers who were looking for Desimone and was taken to the emergency room, Frazier said.

Officers from the Dalton Police Department arrested Desimone at his home after a citizen called 911 with information about his whereabouts. Further charges against Desimone are possible, Frazier said.

Investigators think the incident was random and that Desimone and Bradford did not have a previous connection, Frazier said.

Desimone was arrested by the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office in September for making a terroristic threat and pointing a firearm at another person, and had been charged in 2008 with carrying a deadly weapon, obstruction of an officer, simple assault and reckless conduct. Personnel at the Whitfield County jail did not know the status of these cases.