BATON ROUGE - A man suspected of using a hammer to shatter hospital employees' car windows at Our Lady of the Lake fled on foot after a police officer spotted him.

The Baton Rouge Police Department said an officer working extra duty at a parking garage saw the suspect walking through the area with a hammer around 2 a.m. Monday. When the officer approached the man, the suspect ran away.

Investigators later found windows shattered on about 10 cars in the employee parking garage, but the man reportedly dropped whatever items he had stolen when he ran off. 

Our Lady of the Lake sent the following statement about the break-ins: 

Early Monday morning, several vehicles belonging to both team members and visitors were broken into in Our Lady of the Lake’s parking garage. Hospital security and an on-site Baton Rouge Police Department unit responded to the incident, identified the suspect and pursued the individual off-site. All stolen property was recovered.

A police investigation has been opened and is ongoing.

The safety and well-being of our team members, patients and visitors is our top priority, and we appreciate the swift response of our security and the BRPD. In addition to the continued security presence and camera surveillance, we have increased police patrols in all of our garages and surface parking lots.

Police have not yet identified a suspect in the break-ins.