An officer described the high stakes after someone disrupted the oxygen supply of the state’s largest hospital earlier this month, putting patients at risk. That was one of the details revealed in a police report released Monday by the CU Anschutz Police Department.

At about 3:30 a.m. Sept. 3, Officer Joshua Martinez reported he was dispatched to the University Hospital ER. The security company Pal American Security had video of someone “turning off the oxygen supply” to the hospital at about 1:17 am.

“I later discovered that this put many patients in danger as the hospital had to take emergency measures for the patients,” Martinez wrote in the narrative section of the report. The subject line reads: Criminal Tampering at University Hospital.

The issue was resolved a short time later, and no patients were harmed, said a spokesperson for UCHealth, which operates the hospital.

Vague description of suspect

The officer’s report made no mention of any possible motive or suspects, other than giving a rough description of someone wearing dark clothing.

It described the offenses they were investigating as property damage, trespassing and reckless endangerment.

“We cannot comment on an ongoing investigation, but we can confirm there is no ongoing risk to the public or the hospital,” David Kelly, senior director of media relations with the University of Colorado Anschutz.

“Hospitals plan for all kinds of emergencies/crises — including ones that are known (e.g., weather events) and ones that can’t be anticipated,” said Cara Welch, senior communications director with the Colorado Hospital Association. “That requires backup systems, hospital staff training, and effective crisis response/incident management when something does happen, ” she said. “It sounds like all three of those components worked in this situation at University.”

Three key takeaways from the police report

1. Security said the person who shut off the oxygen must have known what they were doing.

When Martinez arrived at the scene, he spoke with a hospital security supervisor, Pat Marial, and security officer, Christopher Solis, with Pal American Security. Marial told Martinez the team saw on the video someone jump over the fence of the oxygen enclosure about 1:16 am, turn off the oxygen, then jump back. The person “must have known what they were doing because they were in and out in about 30 seconds,” Marial told the officer.

2. Security was alerted after a report of oxygen levels “down to zero.”

The disruptions caused the hospital to have to move to “mobile and manual” breathing methods for the patients needing oxygen. UCHealth spokesman Dan Weaver told CPR Monday the hospital has a primary and backup oxygen system, as well as oxygen tanks, which are routinely deployed throughout the hospital. In general, given the time of day, the hospital was less busy than it would generally be during the day, he said.

Martinez reported that he asked Marial “why we were notified almost two hours after the incident.” Marial told him he had just been notified by the hospital supervisor that their oxygen was “down to zero” and was asked to see if anyone had tampered with the oxygen. Marial said when they discovered on security camera video that someone had jumped the gate, they called CU Anschutz PD. 

3. Video gives scant detail about the person behind the tampering.

Martinez’s account says he and another officer, Anthon Tran, watched security camera footage in the security office with the two employees of the security company. They saw a person enter the frame from a camera near the oxygen storage area. A few minutes later, the person climbs a fence. They assume they “tampered with the oxygen tank valves,” though the officer notes “he 

could not actually see what the individual was doing on the other side of the fence.” A couple of minutes later, the person jumps back over the fence and “disappeared into the dark.”

Marial told Martinez that when he reviewed the camera footage, he did not observe anyone else approach or walk near the oxygen enclosure or see the suspect come back onto campus on the cameras. 

Due to the low quality of the video, the officer said he could not determine the gender of the suspect. The police report said that the suspect appeared to be wearing dark gray pants and a long-sleeve, dark gray shirt and either wearing a black hat or had dark brown/black hair. 

Before the CUPD officers arrived, the oxygen had been turned back on, and the hospital had returned to normal operations, Martinez wrote.

CPR justice reporter Ava Kian contributed to this report.