A medical affected person shot and killed his doctor whereas they have been inside an examination room in Tennessee on Tuesday, authorities mentioned.
Dr. Benjamin Mauck was with Larry Pickens, 29, within a clinic in Collierville, exterior of Memphis, when he was shot by Pickens with a handgun round 2:30 p.m., police mentioned.
Pickens fled the Campbell Clinic however was taken into custody inside 5 minutes by police. He was charged Wednesday with first-degree homicide and aggravated assault, police mentioned.
“It’s horrible. Please pray for the sufferer and his household,” mentioned Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane at a press convention.
Lane known as the incident an remoted, focused assault and mentioned that police imagine there was a possibility for the gunman to hurt others on the facility however he didn’t, and “we don’t know why.” A suspected motive has not been launched.
A witness on the scene of the taking pictures instructed native station WREG {that a} affected person had been threatening Mauck for the previous week previous to the assault, although Lane mentioned at Tuesday’s presser that authorities weren’t conscious of any threats made previous to the taking pictures.
The Collierville Police Division mentioned they haven’t any identified prior incidents with Pickens however that investigators are trying into whether or not any exterior businesses had prior run-ins with him.
His bond was set at $1.2 million by a decide Wednesday.
Mauck was an orthopedic surgeon who specialised in elbow, hand and wrist surgical procedure and had a glowing 4.9 ranking amongst his sufferers, in accordance with his clinic’s on-line biography. The clinic requested prayers and privateness for Mauck’s household in a public assertion that memorialized him as a “extremely revered and beloved” doctor.
The taking pictures is simply the newest focusing on well being care staff.
Again in Could, a person opened hearth inside an Atlanta medical facility’s ready room, killing one girl and injuring 4 others. The 24-year-old suspect was mentioned by his lawyer to have been affected by psychological well being points on the time of the assault.
Then in 2022, a person armed with an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun killed 4 folks inside a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical constructing. Authorities mentioned the gunman was focusing on his surgeon, who was amongst these killed, attributable to ongoing again ache he was experiencing following surgical procedure. Police mentioned the firearms have been bought shortly earlier than the assault.
Tennessee state Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) known as for tighter gun restrictions within the wake of current shootings in her state.
“For a decade, Republicans have been loosening Tennessee’s gun legal guidelines and making our neighborhood extra harmful. Tragedies like this underscore the pressing want for widespread sense — like reinstating background checks and gun licenses, and establishing new reforms like an order of safety so police can take away firearms from an individual who’s threatening others,” she mentioned in an announcement obtained by The Tennessee Holler.
Akbari and fellow Democrats made related pleas again in 2021 when Collierville police responded to a mass taking pictures at a Kroger grocery retailer that left one individual useless and 12 others injured.
Earlier this 12 months, a taking pictures at a Christian faculty in Nashville left three youngsters and three adults useless.