A 54-year-old Vero hospital orderly is out on $15,000 bond, after police seized two Glock handguns, more than a dozen loaded magazines plus boxes of ammunition he had brought in a military-style knapsack to his job in the Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital Emergency Department.
Christopher Robert Webb, who lives with his parents in the Grovenor Estates subdivision in southwest Vero, might never have drawn the attention of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office had he not adopted the habit of walking the streets of the upscale neighborhood totally in the buff.
On Feb. 16, neighbors called police to report a naked jaunt, but no one had photographic evidence, and Webb denied the act. After a two-week investigation, deputies had the evidence they needed to serve an arrest warrant for indecent exposure on Webb at Cleveland Clinic, where he’d worked for the past nine and a half years.
Webb was handcuffed and placed in the squad car without incident, but he was carrying a pocket knife which he failed to disclose, and a search of his knapsack revealed the weapons. Webb’s misdemeanor sex charge then turned into a felony offense for bringing the guns into the hospital.
“The bag was at his workstation. He was arrested away from his work station, so he was away from those guns,” Sheriff Eric Flowers said. “The security team brought his bag out to us.”
The police report says Webb claimed he brought the guns to work in case of trouble because the hospital receives psychiatric patients through the Emergency Department. Flowers speculated that Webb knew he would be arrested at work for his naked jaunts, and perhaps intended to commit “suicide by cop.”
However troubling the details of this case might seem, Flowers said his agency had no reason to involuntarily commit Webb for 72 hours as prescribed by Florida law because he was not threatening to harm himself or anyone else. Flowers said Webb acted in a calm manner, and though he initially lied about having firearms in his bag, he was cooperative once arrested.
He did not act crazy enough to be kept in the psych ward for observation for three days.
So after his first appearance in court, Webb posted bond on Friday and went home to his presumably shocked and worried neighborhood. Flowers said Webb has since been terminated from his job at Cleveland Clinic, where he had direct contact with patients as a “transporter,” moving patients to different rooms. Detectives found out via interviews that Webb also had sent lewd texts and images to some Cleveland Clinic staffers during his tenure at the hospital.
Cleveland Clinic spokesperson Raquel Gonzalez Rivas issued the following statement on Monday. “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.”
Flowers, speaking at a press conference, asked anyone from the public who’d had a strange interaction with Webb to please come forward.
Flowers said deputies applied for a risk protection order for Webb. This means Webb can no longer have access to firearms.
“We’re in a safer position that (Webb) no longer has access to these weapons. It’s in the system. If he went to try and purchase a firearm, he would be denied – but that’s through legal means,” Flowers said. “If he goes down the street and tries to buy one from a private seller, they would have no idea that he’s not allowed to possess those, other than us getting the word out through (the media).”
Flowers asked private gun owners not to sell Webb a firearm while he’s awaiting trial.
