A father’s desperate – but dangerous – strategy to keep his son on life support

“Hey, we need the police stat, to the hospital. We have a family member with a gun.”

This is the call that a staff member at Tomball Regional Medical Center put in 11 months ago, when George Pickering of Pinehurst, Tex., angrily pulled out a 9 mm handgun while standing at his son’s hospital bedside.

Gary Hammond, Tomball Police’s head of criminal investigations, told theHouston Chronicle at the time that Pickering was “distraught” over the care his son, George Pickering III, was receiving. The younger Pickering was on life support after having a stroke.

According to witnesses, Pickering yelled “I’ll kill all of you,” and pointed the gun at hospital workers. A nurse and Pickering’s ex-wife left after he reportedly said, “You don’t think that’s the only weapon I got.”

Though Pickering was quickly disarmed by another son who was also at the hospital, he refused to surrender to police officers, resulting in an hours-long standoff between SWAT officers in the hospital room, as Pickering held his son’s hand all the while.

Eventually, he was coaxed into surrendering, according to the Chronicle. The incident landed Pickering behind bars on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon — for which he was released from jail just this month.

One of the chargers was dropped and the other reduced to a state jail felony. According to CNN affiliate KRPC, Pickering was also given credit for time served.

Along with Pickering’s freedom has come a chance at redemption, as the father recently told KRPC why he felt compelled to threaten violence that day.

It was because he wanted to save his son’s life.

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