Salinas police use stun gun on man after lockdown at Natividad Medical Center

Salinas police officers had to use a stun gun on a man who they say prompted a lockdown at Natividad Medical Center Sunday afternoon.

Officers were called to the area of Argentine Drive and Bardin Road after callers reported a man acting strangely. The man was reportedly claiming that someone was trying to kill him and that he was being chased by a subject with a rifle. The man began jumping fences through the residential area until the callers lost sight of him, but was then seen entering a green sedan.

A witness told dispatchers it appeared the man, later identified as 30-year-old Antonio Vidal Abundez Acosta, had carjacked the driver of the sedan.

Police officers spotted the car soon after in a parking lot of Natividad Medical Center and conducted a stop. The driver told police he’d been flagged down by Acosta and agreed to give him a ride. When the driver realized something wasn’t quite right, he drove to the hospital, where Acosta exited the car.

While officers were talking to the driver, hospital security called dispatch reporting a man with a gun was inside the hospital and threatening suicide. Acosta, 30, had run into the hospital and had a metallic object in his hand.

The hospital was placed on lockdown and a search for Acosta began. Eventually he was found inside a stairwell, screaming and hitting the walls with a metal object.

Efforts to negotiate with him were unsuccessful and he fled down two flights of stairs. Officers eventually used a stun gun on him and were able to take him into custody.

The metal object he was holding turned out to be a piece of a door from the hospital. Acosta appeared to be under the influence of narcotics.

He was booked into Monterey County Jail on multiple charges.