Police: Nurse fatally stabbed while protecting patients

• Suspect was at the hospital to visit his mother%2C police say
• Another hospital employee and three visitors also were hurt in the attack
• Suspect Kyron Rayshawn Templetown was arrested a short distance from the hospital

Family, friends and coworkers are mourning a 57-year-old Texas nurse who died while police said she was trying to protect her patients.

Gail Sandidge, a nurse in the Ambulatory Surgery Center of Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview, Texas, was pronounced dead Tuesday morning after the fatal stabbing attack by a man who hospital officials said was at the facility to visit his mother.

The NurseTogether.com website said Sandidge liked reading, sewing and spending time with her family. She had been on the hospital staff since 1978, hospital CEO Steve Altmiller said during a press conference Tuesday.

Four others were injured in the attack. They are: hospital employee Karen Bobo, and hospital visitors Harris Teel, Teresa Allison and Melissa Simms, Longview police said. Bobo and one of the visitors was treated and released, Altmiller said, while a second visitor remained in critical condition and a third was in good condition.

Police arrested Kyron Rayshawn Templeton, 22, of Longview, a short distance from the hospital near a church a few minutes after the alleged incident. They found the murder weapon outside the hospital, police said.

Templeton was being held on $2.6 million bond and was charged with one count of murder and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Longview Police Department.

Templeton told authorities that "they" were trying to kill his mother, the Longview News-Journal said it was told by police.

Templeton's mother was scheduled to have a procedure Tuesday morning, Altmiller said during the press conference earlier Tuesday.

"The Good Shepherd family tragically lost a member of its team this morning," Altmiller said.

WItness Chad Jackson was at the hospital with his family waiting for his 6-year-old daughter to have a procedure when the incident took place, the Longview News-Journal reported.

Sandidge was his daughter's nurse and had just left her to look after another child when a commotion erupted, Jackson told the news organization.

"The nurse that was caring for our daughter came out of one of the other curtained areas to see what was going on," he said. "That's when he stabbed her in the chest."

Templeton then turned toward Jackson and his family, Jackson told the News-Journal, and Jackson stepped in front of his wife and children.

"You hear people talk about facial expressions and eyes and you could just tell something was wrong," Jackson told the news organization.

Police records show Templetown also had an arrest back in April for theft of stolen property back in January 2011.