Tulsa shooting suspect targeted surgeon over back pain, say police

A man who blamed his surgeon for ongoing pain after a recent back operation bought a rifle hours before opening fire at a Tulsa medical office, killing the surgeon and three other people before fatally shooting himself, police in Oklahoma said.

Tulsa police chief Wendell Franklin said the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain.

Mr Franklin said the doctor who performed the surgery, Dr Preston Phillips, was killed on Wednesday, along with another doctor, a receptionist and a patient.

“We also have a letter on the suspect, which made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr Phillips and anyone who got in his way,” Mr Franklin said. “He blamed Dr Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery.”

Authorities said the gunman carried a rifle and handgun during the shooting at the medical building on a hospital campus, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks.

The shooting on the campus of Saint Francis Health System happened the same week that families in Uvalde, Texas, began burying the dead from the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade.

The victims and gunman in Tulsa were found on the second floor of a medical office where an orthopaedic clinic is located, police said.

The gunman, whose name has not been released, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Tulsa Police Department deputy chief Eric Dalgleish.

The hospital said in a statement that it was “grieving the loss of four members of our community”.

Authorities investigating the Tulsa shooting executed a search warrant at a home in Muskogee, about 72km southeast of Tulsa, in connection with the investigation, police said.

“It appears both weapons at one point or another were fired on the scene,” Mr Dalgleish said. “The officers who arrived were hearing shots in the building, and that’s what led them to the second floor.”

Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4.52pm and made contact with the gunman at 5.01pm, Mr Dalgleish said.

“I was very happy with what we know so far regarding the response of our officers,” he added.

Tulsa police captain Richard Meulenberg also said multiple people were wounded and that the medical complex was a “catastrophic scene”.

St Francis Health System locked down its campus because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building, which houses outpatient clinics and other medical offices.

“This campus is sacred ground for our community,” said Tulsa mayor GT Bynum. “For decades, this campus has been a place where heroes come to work every day to save the lives of people in our community.”

Philip Tankersley (27) was leaving his father’s room at the nearby Saint Francis Hospital when hospital staff said there was an active gunman in the building across the street, locked the doors and warned them to stay away from the windows.

Mr Tankersley said he and his mother sheltered in his father’s hospital room for more than an hour, trying to learn scraps of information from the TV news and passing nurses. He said they heard “code silver” and “level 1 trauma” announced on the hospital speakers and wondered if they were safe in the room.

“I wasn’t particularly worried because the two people that I need to look out for were in that same room as me,” he said. “But it was definitely a ‘this is happening here’ moment.” – AP