CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A woman was attacked in a stairwell of a parking garage at Presbyterian Hospital Wednesday evening, the second attack on a hospital employee in the hospital parking facility in 24 hours.
The second attack happened in the main parking deck. Police focused their investigation on a stairwell that opens out onto the East 5th Street side of the garage.
The hospital said the woman was not seriously inured in the attack.
Early Wednesday morning a nurse was stabbed three times by a man who tried to force her into her car in a hospital lot on Hawthorne Lane. The man took her purse and a shoulder bag and she ran back into the hospital calling for help. Her wounds were not serious.
Presbyterian Hospital said Thursday it is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who gives information leading to an arrest.
Word of the second attack stunned neighbors and people who work near the hospital.
"It sounds like someone is targeting nurses and knows there is a lot of activity," said Tonya Redmond, who was walking to her car across the street from the parking garage.
Another woman walking nearby who did not want to give her name said, "It is very frightening and I think everybody has to just be very diligent and use street smarts."
The Charlotte-Mecklenberg police helicopter circled over the hospital Wednesday night.
“It is with great concern that Presbyterian Hospital has learned another employee has been assaulted in the stairwell of the hospital parking garage,” the hospital said in a statement Wednesday night. “Thankfully the employee escaped injury.”
No arrests have been made.
After the first attack, Harmon said the hospital was evaluating safety measures that might be put in place. Following the second attack, she said the hospital has increased its security and officials are working with police. She said Presbyterian’s officers are escorting employees to their vehicles.
Anyone with any information about the attacks has been asked to call police.
