A man who blamed his surgeon for ongoing pain after a recent back surgery bought an AR-style rifle hours before carrying out a shooting at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical office, killing the surgeon and three other people before fatally shooting himself, police said Thursday. Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain.
Franklin said the doctor who performed the surgery, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with another doctor, a receptionist and a patient.
“We have also found 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,” Franklin said. “He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery.”
Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, called Phillips “the consummate gentleman” and “a man that we should all strive to emulate.” He said the three employees who were killed were “the three best people in the entire world” and that they “didn’t deserve to die this way.”
Authorities said the gunman, identified as Michael Louis, carried a rifle and handgun during the shooting on the hospital campus, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks.
Wednesday’s shooting happened the same week that families in Uvalde, Texas, began burying the dead from the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. In Taft, Oklahoma, a woman was killed in a mass shooting during a Memorial Day weekend celebration that also left seven people injured, police said.
The victims and gunman in Tulsa were found on the second floor of a medical office where an orthopedic clinic is located, police said. The shooter died from what police believed was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Franklin said.
The spate of recent gun violence across the country, including the killing of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde by an 18-year-old gunman carrying an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, has led to Democratic leaders amplifying their calls for greater restrictions on guns, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools. Bipartisan discussions are also being conducted.
