Oregon hospital mourns guard shot dead while defending maternity ward

Bobby Smallwood stood between gunman and maternity patients and staff when he was shot and killed on Saturday

A community in the US state of Oregon is mourning a hospital security guard who was shot to death while protecting a maternity ward from an intruder over the weekend.

The slain guard, 44-year-old Bobby Smallwood, started out handling administrative and computer-related tasks when he first joined Portland's Legacy Health network last year, according to a profile of him published by the news website oregonlive.com. But staffers at the hospital network often called Smallwood to help out with security because he was 6ft, 5in tall and weighed 270lbs.