SOUTH BEND — An unprovoked attack by a patient at the Willapa Harbor Hospital Feb. 9 at 10:21 p.m. resulted in the Pacific County Prosecutor’s Office filing a felony charge.

The South Bend Police Department responded to the hospital to the report of an assault inside the hospital’s emergency room. Officer Jordan Dockter quickly learned that a female patient, Sandra D. Anderson, 55, allegedly assaulted another patient.

Dockter located the woman inside a room with a guard posted at the door.

“I asked Anderson what was going on, and she advised me that she was preventing a child from being taken,” Dockter stated in court records. “The emergency room doctor on staff advised me that Anderson had assaulted another patient, and she needed to be arrested.”

Dockter peaked into the victim’s room and observed they had sustained a head injury, including a “significant amount” of visible blood on their shirt. Anderson was immediately placed into handcuffs.

According to court records, hospital security guard Steve G. Sampson told Dockter he observed Anderson walk out of her room and into the victim’s room. She then struck him on the head with a cell phone, which was later obtained as evidence.

“I went and spoke with [the alleged victim] and asked him what had happened,” Dockter states. “[He] advised me that he didn’t even know Anderson and he was standing up leaned over the hospital bed with his head down on the bed, which he demonstrated to me.”

“[He] advised me that Anderson came into the room and hit him on the back of the head. I asked [him] if he would like to press charges, and he advised me that he would,” Dockter added.

Sampson also later clarified that Anderson was standing in the doorway to her room because it “was warm,” and then, seemingly unprovoked, went into the man’s room and assaulted him with a cell phone.

According to court records, the alleged victim sustained a head wound that required the placement of two staples, documented with Dockter’s bodycam.

It is believed that at the time of the incident, Anderson was having a mental health crisis and had been in another incident in the hospital. She had reportedly left her room, took a fire extinguisher off a wall, and walked around because she “smelled smoke.”

“That is when they had security come and stand at Anderson’s door,” Dockter stated.

The hospital was able to clear Anderson for booking, and she was transported to the jail for second-degree assault.

Anderson appeared for a preliminary hearing in the Pacific County Superior Court on Feb. 10. Judge Donald J. Richter ordered that she be held without bail and undergo a competency evaluation.