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Family Of Man Murdered At Hopkins Hospital Wonders If It Could Have Been Prevented

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Murder at Johns Hopkins Hospital. What happened inside the ICU that lead a woman to kill her estranged husband? Could anything have stopped the attack?

On Monday, a judge ordered Anita Jones to be held without bail after authorities say she stabbed Christopher "Chubb" Yancey, her estranged husband, inside a room at Johns Hopkins Hospital on Friday.

From charging documents obtained by WJZ, they say Jones left a room in the intensive care unit with blood on her hands.

The family of the victim is trying to cope with his loss, and believes the two should not have been allowed in the same room together.

Loved ones painted a memorial to Christopher "Chubb" Yancey on the east Baltimore block where he'd lived his entire life.

On Friday, police say Yancey's estranged wife, Anita Jones, stabbed him to death as the two were alone inside a room in the Johns Hopkins ICU. The two were arguing over medical treatment for their 14-year-old son.

"This was his community, our community, all in one. He was well loved, man," Yancey's brother, Vernon Ray, said.

Yancey's brother says the family is trying to raise money for his 10 children, including his daughter, who wears a t-shirt with pictures of her dad. She turned 16 over the weekend.

"Just that I miss him, and I love him," said Tykiara Yancey.

"My hope for his kids is that they stay strong," said family friend Debbie Trusty. "He's got a strong family. He's got strong friends and neighbors.

Family members say the two had argued previously while inside the hospital, and had a volatile incident a week ago.

That dispute turned so heated, they both got kicked out. Yancey's brother wonders whether hospital security should have stopped them from visiting at the same time.

"After they'd been put out earlier that week, they still had them together," said Yancey's brother. "Any commotion with any family members, for the safety of their patients, and the safety of their staff, why didn't you call security ASAP?"

Hopkins called it an "isolated incident" and said "at no time were patients, staff or other visitors in danger."

Police praised the way the hospital handled the situation.

"They had every right to be in a room by themselves. You know, they had a child in common in the hospital at the time. So there's nothing anyone could have done. It's everything the suspect could have done," said Baltimore PD spokesman T.J. Smith.

"That world-class facility treats hundreds of thousands of patients a year, and we don't have things like this happen."

While these incidents are rare, seven years ago, a man got upset at his mother's treatment at Hopkins and shot her doctor before killing himself.

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