A patient unleashed horror at a Tulsa medical center, killing 4, including his surgeon
TULSA — A gunman apparently enraged with the doctor who performed his back surgery about two weeks earlier targeted him in a shooting at a Tulsa medical building Wednesday, gunning down the doctor and three others, officials said.
Among the victims were two doctors: Dr. Preston Phillips, the surgeon who police said was targeted, and Dr. Stephanie Husen, age 48, who worked in sports medicine at Saint Francis Health System.
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Amanda Glenn, a 40-year-old receptionist, and 73-year-old William Love, a visitor to the clinic, were also killed, officials said.
The shooting was the third mass killing in as many weeks after a gunman killed 10 people in a market in Buffalo and another shooter killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
The killings come on top of an FBI report last month that showed a 50% rise in "active shooter" incidents in 2021 from the previous year that killed 103 people and injured 130 others.
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Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said after the gunman took his own life, police found a letter on his body that explained he had planned to target his surgeon in the attack.
The letter “made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way,” Franklin said.
The chief said the gunman, identified Thursday as 45-year-old Michael Louis, blamed the doctor for his pain after the surgery.
Louis had legally purchased an AR-15 style rifle just over an hour before the shooting. He used both the rifle and a semi-automatic handgun purchased a few days earlier in the attack.
"There was clear motive," Franklin said of the gunman's intentions. "This was what he planned to do."
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Tulsa's Saint Francis Health Center staff mourning
Saint Francis health care staff were reeling Thursday, devastated in the aftermath of the shooting, hospital leaders said.
Dr. Ryan Parker, the health system’s associate chief medical officer who also works as an emergency physician, said staff were only just beginning to recover from the horrors wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic when Wednesday brought a new tragedy.
Parker had lunch with Phillips, 59, the day before he was killed, she said.
“We are supposed to be the ones that are caring for others,” Parker said. “To think that our caregivers were the victims — it’s just incomprehensible to me. They died while serving others. They died in the line of duty.”
She broke down offering condolences to the family of William Love. He had been taken to the hospital critically wounded in the shooting and later died.
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“Mr. Love, I'm so sorry we couldn't save you," Parker said through tears. "We are grieving with you."
The health system’s CEO, Dr. Cliff Robertson, walked through the clinic Thursday morning where the violence unfolded, praying over each area where the victims’ bodies had lain.
In the wake of the shooting, he asked the health systems' thousands of employees to do two things: Ask questions, because there will be many who need answers in the coming weeks, Robertson said.
“But I also asked him to acknowledge that yesterday will change Saint Francis, and it is up to us to not allow this horrible event, this situation — we can't allow that to make us want to turn our back on the reason that we're here,” he said.
The days leading to the shooting
Franklin, the police chief, offered a detailed timeline of the shooting Thursday, laying out the gunman’s actions in the days and hours before the shooting.
Just under two weeks before the gunman’s rampage, he was a patient of Phillips’. The doctor performed back surgery on Louis on May 19.
Louis was discharged from the hospital a few days later, on May 24. In the following days, he called Phillips’ office repeatedly complaining of pain and asking for treatment.
Louis purchased a semi-automatic handgun, a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol, on Sunday, then returned to the clinic Tuesday for another appointment.
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The day of the shooting
The gunman called Phillips’ office again Wednesday complaining of pain, Franklin said.
About 2 p.m. that afternoon, Louis purchased an AR-15 style rifle he would later use in the shooting.
The gunman parked his car on the second floor of the parking garage attached to the Natalie Building, where Phillips' office was located, police said. He walked through a public entrance to get to the office he then targeted.
"It is an entry that is open to the public just as any other building just as you walked in here today," Franklin said. "There is no one to greet you at that door. So he was able to walk in without any type of challenge."
By 4:52 p.m., the first 911 call came in about the shooting.
At 4:58 p.m., police on the second floor heard a final gunshot when the gunman took his own life. Police had arrived on scene just moments before that, Franklin said.
From there, officers began clearing and evacuating the five-story medical building. At least two victims were found dead in exam rooms, including Phillips, police said. Another was found dead near a nurses' station.
Police recovered 30 .223-caliber casings and seven .40-caliber casings from the crime scene, along with the letter that outlined the gunman's motive, Franklin said.
Saint Francis leaders said other people besides the four deceased victims were treated and released for injuries in the shooting, but declined to say how many and whether they were struck by gunfire or hurt in the chaos of the scene.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Man kills 4, including his surgeon, in rampage at Tulsa medical center
