NEW YORK — A doctor with a rifle hidden under a lab coat opened fire Friday at the Bronx hospital where he used to work, killing one physician and leaving several other doctors fighting for their lives, authorities said. The gunman fatally shot himself after first trying to set himself on fire, they said.
Authorities described a chaotic scene at Bronx Lebanon Hospital as gunfire broke out around 2:50 p.m. local time, spreading terror throughout the hospital as employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives.
"I thought I was going to die," said Renaldo Del Villar, a 55-year-old patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.
Law enforcement officials identified the shooter as Dr. Henry Bello, who was described on the hospital website as a family medicine physician. He resigned from the hospital in 2015 after some sort of dispute, according to one law enforcement official, who said Bello used an AR-15 in the attack.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the still-unfolding investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ultimately, one female doctor was killed and six others wounded, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
"This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere," de Blasio said.
The FBI tweeted that they had found "no nexus to terrorism" so far.
Shortly after receiving a 911 call about an active shooter, police officers went floor by floor, their guns drawn, looking for the gunman. They learned just before 4 p.m. local time he was dead inside the building. De Blasio confirmed that the Bello killed himself, while Police commissioner James O'Neill said he tried to set himself on fire.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.