Investigators outside the emergency room of Doctors Hospital in Columbus, GA., where one of the triple homicides took place on 03/27/08. (Dave Bender)
A man who held a grudge against a worker at the hospital where his mother died shot and killed the wrong person, investigators testified Monday, citing a confession to the slayings of three people.
Johnston, suspected in triple homicide. (Columbus Police)
Charles Johnston, 63, told authorities he took extra ammunition and three guns to the scene because he "didn't know what to expect," the detectives said.
Johnston was ordered held without bond at the hearing in Columbus Recorders Court, where he appeared in a wheelchair. An officer shot Johnston in the shoulder after the killings Thursday at Doctors Hospital in Columbus.
A court-appointed attorney for Johnston has not been named. Charles Lykins, who represented Johnston at Monday's hearing as public defender for the Recorder's Court, had no comment.
The hearing came just hours after funerals were held for two of the victims — registered nurse Peter Wright, 44, and James Baker, 76, who was shot getting out of his car in the parking lot.
Police say Johnston held a grudge and targeted a male nurse who had worked at the hospital who he said had provided negligent care to his mother before her death in 2004.
Detective Joby Duncan said that he took Johnston's statement after he signed a waiver of his rights, and that the confession was videotaped.
"He just told me that that morning he woke up and was tired of thinking about what happened to his mother years ago," Duncan said.
Johnston told police he went to the hospital twice Thursday to look for "an individual he knew as Peterson to settle something with him," Duncan said.
Johnston left when he didn't find the person he was looking for, then returned about an hour later and began shooting, Duncan said.
Wright, who was working on the fifth floor, was shot after Johnston heard someone call him 'Pete,' police said.
"Peter Wright never attended (Johnston's) mother at the Doctors Hospital," police Lt. Charles Kennedy said. "I am assuming he just made a mistake because he overheard a guy being called Peter.
"He just mistakenly shot Peter Wright thinking it was Peterson," he said.
Next shot was Leslie Harris, a 44-year-old administrative assistant who was shot in the chest after he happened upon the shooter.
Duncan said Johnston later shot Baker in the head, wrongly believing Baker pulled into a parking space in front of him to "prevent him from escaping."
Nurse Karen Pridgen was one of several witnesses at the hearing. Visibly shaken, she recalled seeing Wright and Harris shot and hearing gunfire and some of what Johnston said to Wright.
"I heard him say ... 'You killed my mama,'" Pridgen said.
Johnston did not testify. Kennedy said police are not trying to find out the identity of the nurse Johnston was looking for, saying the investigation is focused on the triple homicide.
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(The Associated Press)
