50 SWAT Officers Face Off Against The Arkansas Hospital Shooter

SWOT officers are deep inside St Vincent North Hospital. Just minutes earlier, about a dozen gunshots were fired from somewhere inside, and now the entire building is on lockdown. The shooter has already claimed his first victim, and with no idea what his next move is, police are racing against the clock to find him before he takes more innocent lives. It's around 10am on September 28th at St Vincent North Hospital. One of the hospital's busiest times of day, surgeons are mid-procedure with patients lying unconscious. Suddenly, about a dozen gunshots ring out from somewhere inside the hospital, throwing the entire building into chaos. Moments later, 911 calls begin flooding in. Approximately 10 minutes after the 911 calls, an army of law enforcement is surrounding the hospital, state police, SWOT teams, the FBI, a bomb squad, and even a helicopter watching from above. The plan is to lock down every exit, evacuate civilians, secure the building, and locate the shooter. But that's easier said than done, because St Vincent North is only 1 of 2 hospital buildings on the same campus. Inside, there are more than 70 rooms, a maze of hallways, and about 20 exits to cover. They prepare to rush into the hospital, but the odds are in the shooter's favor. With no confirmation on the shooter, officers are left with no choice but to treat everyone inside as a potential suspect. If they're not careful or patient enough, things could go terribly wrong. Just moments later, that danger becomes very real. Miraculously, the man inside turns out to be a patient. Had officers acted too quickly, an innocent civilian could have been killed. This shows just how delicate the situation is, and the immense pressure officers are working under. But the lack of the suspect's identity and his goal is only their first problem, as a much larger issue begins to emerge. Most of the rooms are either locked or barricaded by patients and staff. Officers have no way of knowing who's behind each door, and checking them all in a hospital this big would take too much time. Quickly, they begin to realize they're at a severe disadvantage, so they shift their focus to the fourth floor, where the 911 calls first place the shooter. It's a decision they won't realize is a mistake until much later. They waste no time and rush for the stairs to confront the suspect, unaware he has already claimed his first victim. Did you call? Where is the ad? He left. He left it. Okay, so now you're okay. He did. What is it? Okay, I need to go with the saucer here. Go with him, and then he's going to get some information from you. The victim appears to be a male visitor in his last 20s shot multiple times in the body, and had tragically he's already gone, leaving officers with no clear lead on the shooter who's already fled the scene. Despite this, the shooter isn't far from the officers. In fact, he's just one floor beneath them, making his way through the hospital. Meanwhile, officers are still operating at a complete disadvantage. They don't know who he is, what he looks like, or what his end goal is, but that's about to change. Okay, I need to go with the saucer here to go with him, and then he's going to get some information from me. He is about 5'8", he's a very skinny white dude, he had blue jeans and I think a black shirt on, kind of sunken in. Blue jeans, a black shirt, just a shirt. I believe his girlfriend, their ex girlfriend, is in another room and his mom is calling her and I'm talking to her. And she probably has a picture of it, what the nurse tells officers makes one thing clear. They need to speak with the ex girlfriend, as she may be the only person who can identify both the shooter and the victim. They don't waste time and an officer approaches her room to speak with her. What she reveals becomes the breakthrough the officers have been waiting for. After what feels like hours of uncertainty, officers finally know exactly who they're looking for. Raymond Allen Lubbett Jr, also known as AJ, Jade's ex-boyfriend. He was in the hospital visiting her after she was hospitalized with a high fever. However, Jade has a secret and is withholding crucial information from the officers. One officer picks up on that hesitation and decides to press further, a decision that will reveal just how dangerous AJ really is. We're gonna get married or anything or we can't complain about it. I've had so much future right there. He was like, how long have I been together? And we were like, it's gonna be three years in November. Time right after that shots were fucking fired. How many shots do you think? Four. Four. Two in his cheek and two in his neck, I believe. After that, he said, I think I'm not pulled in. Pulled it to me and I tried to press the button. I was pressing this thing, but I was like, looking because I was just trying to get someone in here and I was screaming. And then after he heard someone call it, he just walks out of the phone call and wait like, you know, doing thing. Are they friends? They don't know each other. That's the first time they ever met. How long have you known AJ? I guess you can say eight years. Hey, years? Why do you think AJ would have done this? He literally said to the nurses, I've really killed my fiancee that he got me to serve. My fiancee, a relationship wasn't my deal, but he completely changed himself to be a person. And I was surprised. Did AJ think Layton was a bad person? Yeah, he didn't want to hear it. He was like, if he was already a bad person to begin with, he's probably going to be one now. Layton was a good person to do this. I believe that. I really believe that. Well, it sounds like Jay's relationship with Layton, her fiancee, was volatile at times. Something she told AJ, her ex-boyfriend, about what she shared with him pushed him towards a dangerous conclusion that he had no other choice but to do something about Layton. And having already crossed that line, and based on the way AJ left the room, officers can't rule out the possibility that he may lash out again, especially towards anyone he believes wronged Jay'd. What AJ continues to be one step ahead, right now he's taking the most obvious route out of the hospital, and the one they least expect, the main elevator. At the same time, officers rush down floor-by-floor, securing each and every room, hoping they will intercept him before he takes another victim. All right. We're going down the whole floor, floor-by-floor, so. Yeah. So that's the last of you. Good morning. The officers have now fully secured the fourth and third floors. At the same time, a second team has been working its way up the building clearing the first and second floors. Now they're moving up the stairwell to meet the other team and coordinate their next move, but they're about to face another issue. Even though the team had just cleared the second floor before moving up, AJ somehow managed to be there at the same time, slipping through their fingers once again. With no other choice, officers immediately turn back, racing down to the second floor, desperate to find him. All right, coming through. Coming through. All right. Check that. Yep. One more. That went down. Oh, it's already filled up. All right. Check behind the door. For yet, can you show your hands there? She's behind the equipment there? That's the short place you're taking step out. Did you see back there with you? Did you see my body or something? Come on back. Come on back. So you're back or back? So nobody else is with you. Come on, you're safe. All right. Come on. You're coming with me. All right. You think I like me? I'm stressing out. I don't want nobody. There we go. There's a second floor. Third floor. Third floor. As they clear the remaining rooms, officers encounter patients trapped in hospital beds and surgeons still operating mid-procedure. Dozens of defenseless people are still inside the hospital. And if AJ crosses paths with them, they stand no chance. Police need to move faster before the inevitable happens. Police department. Come on, take a look around the corner. Hey, where are they headed for us? Right in the frame. So can you exit out of this door? Yes. So what we're going to do? Hey, come on. I'm going to leave. Hey, everybody's going to exit out of this door. I'm going to be in front. He's going to be behind you. But everybody in this office needs to exit out the door. Officers have now secured the entire building. And there's no trace of AJ anywhere. Somehow, he's managed to escape completely unnoticed. Exactly how he pulled that off would remain a mystery until much later. And while officers in the first building are left with no answers, a team in the second building is on the verge of a breakthrough. They've come across a woman who claims to know exactly where AJ is. I told you. I told you. I told you. I told you. So I called him and I said, hey, what's going on? My life is over. What are you reading in life is over? AJ, just tell me. It depends on what happened. What'd you do? I just killed somebody. So I just put 13 shots to his head. No, no, no, no, no. AJ, just, no. What do you mean? I heard that. I don't know. Where is Saint Vincent in jail with the AJ? Did you leave? Yes. Did you right? Did you leave? Because the cops are going to be there. It's a situation where they shoot. And you're too shoot. You're in a public area. You're shooting. They're shooting. They're shooting. To kill. I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to shoot. I'm going to leave my life. It's over. I'd rather do it by my own hands. But he- Just like to go to medical malton. I don't know. Speaking with officers, is Melissa Levitt. AJ's sister. She arrived at the hospital just minutes earlier. After AJ told her, he had murdered someone. According to Melissa, AJ plans to end his life on a trail at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. That possibility, however, is quickly rolled out. Because AJ has one more surprise in store for police. One final 911 call. A gas station employee, located 15 miles from the St. Vincent North Hospital, reports that a man has disarmed himself inside the store. Officers rushed there immediately. After evading police for over two hours, slipping through their fingers and outsmarting them at every turn, they're finally going to miss their killer. What's your name? What's your name? Raymond. What's your last name? After AJ has put in the back of a patrol car, he's transported to the station and placed in an interrogation room. Even though he surrendered voluntarily, this interview is critical. Despite the overwhelming evidence, AJ still has ways to lessen the consequences. His voluntary surrender gives him leverage, and with Jade reluctant to speak openly about her relationship with AJ, he's now the person controlling what detectives learn about. Interrogating him is Drew Edwards, a veteran of the Sherwood Police Department with more than a decade of experience, currently serving as a police captain. AJ's interrogation begins, but almost immediately, the detective is facing his first issue. Hey, don't run. Hey, so, I'm Detective Edwards with the Sherwood Police Department. So, we pretty much have a lot of evidence for this case, so we're just trying to get talk to him. Needless to say, AJ's first words are the last thing Detective Edwards wants to hear. His next move will decide whether AJ keeps talking or asks for a lawyer, ending any chance of hearing his unfiltered account. "So I just want to let you know that I talked to a lot of your family members and every single one of them have pointed to the fact that you're not a bad kid, you're not a bad guy. What you did was for a reason." "So I lost my mind. I mean, that's point blank." "Yeah." "So after the incident, how did you lead the hospital?" "I got to the elevator and that's about when it really started to sink in and I was freaking out. I heard them call over the intercom saying that there was an active shooter and I was in the elevator going like for the button when I had heard intercom. My brain was all over the place in that moment. I got off on whatever floor, I don't know what floor it was, I don't think it was the first floor, it was one of the other floors." "Did you talk to some of my nurses or anything?" "Yeah. I started asking people like, where is the exit and stuff. At that moment, all I could think of was like, oh god, they're going to come up here and kill me. They're thinking there's somebody here shooting everybody and at some point, I had found a stairwell and that's how I got out of the hospital." "So did you leave up the front entrance to where you came from?" "I don't know, sir. To be honest. I don't know which entrance to the side, maybe." Clearly, AJ didn't have an intricate escape plan after committing the murder, yet he still somehow managed to slip past a law enforcement army. In that moment, AJ had a brief but crucial advantage that the detectives are yet to learn about. For now though, the focus is another question. How did AJ escape the hospital area after leaving the building? For a second time, AJ had made the most obvious choice and somehow it worked flawlessly. "I guess my next question, where's your perfect car at? Like when I pulled in to the hospital, I pulled over to the left of that entrance. I guess if you were coming out of the hospital, I was like towards the back. I had already decided like, I need to turn myself in. I knew like that was my only logical move. I knew like if I turned myself in that the car would probably get impounded and like that's not my car. That was my girlfriend's car, Hayley Martin, and you know, she's pregnant and stuff, but I was trying to look out for her too, because I knew she needed the car. And so I left the car there and that's when I left. Somewhere along the way I said, "Okay, I'll just go to the gas station and ask the bar there for them, and so that's what I did." How an army of officers and even a helicopter overhead failed to spot AJ from right outside the hospital remains a complete mystery. What stands out however is that AJ has a pregnant girlfriend, yet he was visiting Jade, an ex-girlfriend of his in the hospital. Clearly there's something detectives are missing about his relationship with Jade, so they asked him, and once AJ starts talking, a lot of things start to make sense to them. A big question is, we've been like trying to figure out and we've been kind of like mixed answers on. Is your relationship with Jade if you could just touch into that, like when you first met her, how does relationship progress? For years, and I guess you could say we were more like brother and sister, but we weren't related or anything. Over the years I started to become, I fell in love with her. I think she loved me out. She said she loved me, but after a while we had a small relationship, it was brief. Her dad didn't approve, and he stepped in, and that was that pretty much. Okay, it was a reason why he didn't want to talk to each other. He just didn't approve, didn't really, didn't want her with me. For whatever reason, I couldn't tell you, maybe it's because to him we were more brother and sister. I don't know. How did y'all meet? That's like question. Through Bobby, her father, when him and my stepmom started dating way back when that's like initially, like when I met them and stuff, and we were all kids at the time. You'll live together and everything or no? I wouldn't say live together, but yeah, there were times where like I spent the night over there and stuff like that, yeah, but we didn't like live together. Although they never lived together, AJ's mother and Jade's father were at one point in a relationship. That alone was enough for Jade's father to disapprove when he found out about AJ and Jade's inappropriate relationship. Having that relationship severed, however, didn't make AJ's feelings for Jade disappear. If anything, the way he speaks about her suggests the opposite. According to AJ, years had passed since, and both had apparently moved on from each other. Until, before the hospital shooting, Jade's father passed away. Naturally, family and friends gathered around her to support her through the loss, including AJ. That night, Jade and AJ spent the night talking to each other. Their conversation inevitably became the catalyst for latent's death, and this detective is about to learn exactly why. I thought they were broken up or whatever. I didn't realize that they were actually still together until, you know, I heard that he was up there visiting her and stuff like that, and I just kind of put two and two together. And she told me herself that he choked her out and hit her and stuff like that in the past. Just the other night, she was telling me about how he left a bite mark on her, and this was at the house before she went to the hospital and stuff. I guess you could say, I was just trying to make sense of it, you know, like, why are you still even talking to him, like, you admit that he put his hands on you. What AJ tells detectives suggests that when he left Jade's house, he genuinely believed she and Layton were no longer together. That misunderstanding became a recipe for disaster the very next day when AJ goes to visit her in the hospital, unsure of her condition. Only to find, the man she claimed had been abusing her was already there. If there's a serious issue with all of this, intentionally or not, AJ has been laying the groundwork for a powerful legal defense, framing himself as not the aggressor but as the protector. And so far, the detective has unknowingly been playing into AJ's favor by not challenging his claims at all. So in a desperate attempt, he asks one final question. Once later, AJ reveals a single detail that completely destroys everything he's been hoping for. I have one other question. It's probably going to be the most direct question that somebody's going to ask you about this case. If you don't mind me asking, why did you shoot? When he came into the room, I just had this wave of anger that came over me. I'm like, I knew I couldn't just spaz the f**k out of him, not while Jade was right there. I was shaking and I sat down on the bed. I looked over at him and he was looking at me and he just had this stink eye or a mean mug. You know? I felt like he knew we had a thing at one point or something. I don't know, but he was mean mugging me. I was about to leave and I swear to God I was about to leave and I was telling myself, in my head you need to go. I said, I don't know what's true and what's not true, but if I hear something about you putting your hands on her again, it's not going to be good for you. And he started fidgeting about to get up. I said, if you get up, I'll kill you. And I showed him that I had a gun. For whatever reason, he got up out of that chair anyway. The moment he got to his feet, I just let him have it. How many times did you shoot, do you remember? Well, I think about it and there was only one round left in my gun. I knew I fired at least 12 shots. I don't know how many times I hit him. I just kept going. And I don't know why. I don't know why I kept going, but I kept going. He could. Well, what did you show Jay before you left? I don't think I told her anything. I don't remember that. I shot the shit out of him and I remember her crying and freaking out and that's like what I left. How screwed am I? Am I getting nailed to the cross here, but I swear I love this. Our job is not to know you to the cross. How long have you been in a relationship with Hayley? Um. Over three years. Did Hayley ever notice you were going to go see Jay to talk to Jay or anything out of that? I didn't tell her that I was going to go visit her. All he had to do was stay in this fucking chair. That's all he had to do is stay in that fucking chair and I would have fucking walked out and I would have been that, but he just, you said he could get up, but we're going to get out of here. And I'll ask about the presentation thing for you. And another thing, we're going to go talk to Hayley after this, you want us to tell her anything for you? Just tell her I love her and I'm sorry. We can just go for you. And tell her that's it. Be strong. Disectives wrap up AJ's interview and keep him in custody. By now, one thing is unmistakably clear. AJ fired more than 12 times at an unarmed man who posed no danger to him, continuing to shoot even after killing him. He then proceeded to point the gun at Jade and Brad's that Layton got exactly what he deserved, something AJ claims he doesn't remember. After his interrogation, AJ was placed in jail awaiting trial. Not long after, another discovery was made. A forensic analysis of AJ's phone reveals a message he sent to his mother just minutes before the shooting. I should kill this boy right now. By this point, the evidence against AJ was overwhelming, and prosecution was no longer a question of if but when. In the period leading up to trial, investigators made one final discovery explaining his perfect escape. Shortly after Layton was killed, an active shooter alert was broadcast over the hospital's PA system. On some floors, staff and patients heard the warning. On others, there was no announcement at all. This technical malfunction allowed AJ to simply walk out and escape without ever raising suspicion. During his trial on November 21, 2022, Raymond, AJ love it, was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, along with an additional 15 years for firearm enhancement. If you're looking for more investigations like this one, you can also watch Dr. Insanity On 2B, click the link in the description to start watching.