A security situation at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital Tuesday could easily have been far more dangerous.

At around 6:30 p.m., a 33-year-old male psychiatric patient became irate when informed he could not leave the psychiatric unit.

When confronted by three unarmed hospital security personnel, the man pulled a replica nine millimetre pellet gun and began shooting at the security officers, RCMP spokesman Gary O’Brien said.

“Our members can certainly appreciate how the security officers must have felt when they saw the hand gun being produced,” O’Brien said in a press release. “It must have been terrifying until such time they realized it was a pellet gun and not a real firearm.”

O’Brien added the situation “may have played out much differently” if armed RCMP officers had arrived on the scene first.

Anya Nimmon, Vancouver Island Health Authority spokeswoman, said one security guard and a nurse were slightly injured in the incident. They were treated and released from the emergency department.

It’s not clear how the patient obtained the pellet gun. Nimmon would only say that psychiatric patients are free to come and go from the unit depending upon their clinical situations, which can change from day to day.

By the time RCMP arrived, the gun was secured and the patient was controlled by security and put in a room in the psychiatric unit.

No charges have been laid at this time.

Both the RCMP and VIHA are conducting investigations to ensure all protocols leading up to the incident were followed properly.

Nimmon added that VIHA has zero tolerance for workplace violence, including violence from patients or clients toward staff.

reporter2@nanaimobulletin.com