A 54-year-old employee at a Treasure Coast hospital is accused of having loaded firearms and boxes of ammunition in his possession while at work.
According to a probable cause affidavit, officers arrived at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital near Vero Beach on March 7 to serve a warrant on the suspect, identified as Christopher Webb.
Body camera footage provided by the sheriff’s office showed officers entering the hospital and locating Webb, a patient care technician, at his desk.
Authorities said he had an active warrant and arrested him. Later, a supervisor handed Webb’s backpack over to police, which was on his desk and described as “tactical-style.”
The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said they confiscated two loaded firearms and ammunition from Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital on March 7, 2024.
While wearing his work scrubs and being interviewed in a patrol car, body camera footage shows Webb telling officers, “There shouldn’t be a firearm in that bag.”
When officers searched the backpack, the affidavit said they found two loaded Glock firearms, 10 additional loaded magazines, three boxes full of ammunition, and a speed loader.
Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said when asked what he was going to do with the guns, Webb told investigators he wanted to go back to shooting, but detectives discovered he had never gone to the shooting range where he bought the guns—even after legally purchasing them in 2022 and 2023.
Webb had worked at the hospital for more than nine years and was aware of the facility’s no-weapons policy, as it is a mental health center.
“I feel like we really got lucky,” Flowers said. “It could have been a bad situation. Or it could have been a suicide-by-cop situation. It could have been that he wanted to harm people in the hospital. We really don’t know what he was doing.”
A separate affidavit shows the original arrest warrant officers were serving on Webb was related to a charge of exposure of sexual organs. That case stemmed from weeks earlier when neighbors complained Webb was walking nude through his community.
A Cleveland Clinic spokesperson said Webb was immediately fired from his position—which involved transporting patients from one room to another—following his arrest.
“We can confirm that a patient care technician was arrested at the hospital on Thursday. The hospital remained secure, and there was no danger to caregivers or patients. We are fully cooperating with the authorities’ investigation,” the spokesperson said.
Online jail records show Webb posted a $15,000 bond and was released on Friday.
Flowers said Webb was also sending explicit text messages to some coworkers. The sheriff’s office requested a risk protection order and later seized 22 additional firearms from the home Webb shared with his parents.
“We want people to know this guy here really concerns us because he was doing this kind of stuff,” Flowers said.
The sheriff said they would like to hear from anyone else who may have had a strange encounter with Webb.
Image: Wflx
