INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. — A 54-year-old employee at a Treasure Coast hospital is accused of having loaded firearms and boxes of ammunition in his possession while on the job.
According to a probable cause affidavit, deputies arrived at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital near Vero Beach on March 7 to serve a warrant for the suspect, identified as Christopher Webb.
Body camera video provided by the sheriff's office showed deputies walking into the hospital and located Webb, a caregiver, at his desk.
Law enforcement advised that he had a warrant and placed him under arrest. A supervisor later gave law enforcement Webb's backpack, which was sitting at his desk and described as being "tactical-style."
While wearing his work scrubs and being interviewed in a patrol car, body camera video shows Webb telling them that "there shouldn't be a firearm in that bag."
When deputies searched the backpack, the affidavit said they found two loaded Glock firearms, 10 additional loaded magazines, three full boxes of ammunition and a magazine ammunition speed loader.
Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said when they asked him what he was going to do with the weapons, Webb told investigators he wanted to get back to shooting, but detectives found that he had never gone to the range where he bought the weapons, even after buying them legally in 2022 and 2023.
Webb had been employed at the hospital for more than nine years and was aware of the site's no-gun policy since it is a mental health facility.
"I feel like we really got lucky," Flowers said. "It could have been a bad situation. It could have been a suicide-by-cop situation. It could have been that he wanted to harm people at the hospital. We really don't know what he was up to."
A separate affidavit shows that the original warrant that deputies were serving Webb was related to a charge of exposure of sexual organs. That case originated weeks before when neighbors complained that Webb was walking around their community naked.
A Cleveland Clinic spokeswoman said Webb was immediately terminated from his position, which entailed being a transporter who took patients from room to room, following his arrest.
"We can confirm that a caregiver was arrested at the hospital Thursday. The hospital remained secure and there was no danger to caregivers or patients. We are fully cooperating with law enforcement's investigation," the spokeswoman said.
Online jail records show that Webb posted a $15,000 bond and was released from custody Friday.
Flowers said Webb was also sending explicit text messages to some co-workers. The sheriff's office filed for a risk protection order and later removed an additional 22 firearms from where Webb was living with his parents.
"We want people to know out there that this guy right here, we have great concerns about because he was doing this kind of stuff," Flowers said.
The sheriff said they'd like to hear from anyone else who may have had a strange encounter with Webb.
