Mother with baby attacked at hospital
Police searching for woman’s boyfriend
SANTA FE — A woman with her newborn baby in a maternity ward bed was battered by her angry boyfriend at Holy Cross Hospital in Taos late Wednesday, resulting in a “lockdown” at the hospital all day Thursday, according to a Taos police sergeant.
The boyfriend, Rafael Orozco, 22, escaped after being tackled by hospital security personnel following the disturbance in the ward. The guards backed off after Orozco fought with them and then claimed he had a gun, said Sgt. David Trujillo of the Taos Police
Department.
Trujillo said Orozco has a long criminal record. “He’s does have an active warrant out for his arrest,” Trujillo said. “He’s known to us.”
Orozco’s 23-year-old girlfriend and her baby girl were not seriously hurt, although the mother had a “minor slap mark” on her face and the infant was “either intentionally or accidentally” slapped on the head by Orozco, said Trujillo. Orozco is said to be the baby’s father, according to Trujillo. While Trujillo identified Orozco as the woman’s boyfriend, one media report quoted the Taos police chief as saying Orozco is the mother’s husband.
Trujillo said Orozco faces charges of battery on a household member and battery on a health care professional for the hospital assault.
A statement from Holy Cross said the hospital instituted emergency protocols at 11:46 p.m. Wednesday after the incident. Visitors were not allowed to enter, although Holy Cross continued to take scheduled appointments and was conducting “business as usual” in providing clinical services for patients, the statement said.
Patients and employees were being directed to the emergency room entrance, and were being signed in and out at a reception desk.
“All of our clinical operations are open,” Steve Rozenboom, the hospital chief financial officer, said in the Holy Cross news release. “We are taking necessary precautions to protect the safety and privacy of our patients and employees. That is always our main concern.” The hospital leadership “hopes to have doors open” at 6 a.m. today, the release said.
Sgt. Trujillo said that, during the maternity ward incident, Orozco grabbed the woman by her throat and punched her in the mouth while the baby was beside her in bed. The baby was slapped while in her mother’s arms, Trujillo said.
He said the woman was released from the hospital Thursday afternoon and “was going to a safe place.”
New Mexico Corrections Department records show that a Rafael Orozco with the same birth year as the man now being sought for the maternity ward assault — 1994 — was released from state prison on May 25 and then from the Taos County jail on June 23, according to a Corrections spokeswoman.
The Corrections records indicate he goes by the nickname of “Little Scrappy” and has served prison time for receiving a stolen firearm, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery of a police officer.
State court records available online show that a man with the same name and birth year has convictions in Taos for battery on a police officer in 2014, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, receiving a deadly weapon and driving without a license in 2015. He has also faced charges of resisting arrest, criminal damage to property, aggravated battery and marijuana possession.