A medical affected person shot and killed his physician whereas they had been in a Tennessee examination room on Tuesday, authorities mentioned.
Dr. Benjamin Mauck was with Larry Pickens, 29, at a clinic in Collierville, exterior of Memphis, when he was gunned down by Pickens round 2:30 p.m., police mentioned.
Pickens fled the Campbell Clinic, however was taken into police custody inside 5 minutes. He was charged with first-degree homicide and aggravated assault on Wednesday, police mentioned.
“It is horrible. Please pray for the sufferer and his household,” Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane mentioned at a information convention.
Lane known as the incident an remoted, focused assault, saying police consider the shooter had the flexibility to hurt others within the facility, however he did not and “we do not know why”. A suspected motive has not been launched.
That is what a witness on the scene of the capturing instructed local channel WREG {that a} affected person had threatened Mauck prior to now week previous to the assault, though Lane mentioned to press Tuesday that authorities had been unaware of any threats made previous to the capturing.
Collierville police mentioned they don’t have any prior incidents involving Pickens, however investigators are investigating whether or not exterior businesses have had earlier dealings with him.
His bail was set at $1.2 million by a choose on Wednesday.
Mauck was an orthopedic surgeon who specialised in elbow, hand and wrist surgical procedure and acquired a positive score of 4.9 amongst his sufferers, in keeping with his clinic. online biography. The clinic requested for prayer and privateness for Mauck’s household in a public statement that commemorated him as a “extremely revered and beloved” doctor.
The capturing is simply the newest to focus on healthcare employees.
In Could, a person opened fireplace within the ready room of an Atlanta medical facility, killing a girl and injuring 4 others. In accordance with his lawyer, the 24-year-old suspect suffered from psychological issues on the time of the assault.
Then, in 2022, a person armed with an AR-15 type rifle and pistol killed four people in a medical constructing in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Authorities mentioned the gunman focused his surgeon, who was one of many lifeless, as a result of persistent again ache he skilled after surgical procedure. Police mentioned the firearms had been bought shortly earlier than the assault.
Tennessee State Senator Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) known as for tighter gun restrictions within the wake of current shootings in her state.
“For a decade now, Republicans have relaxed Tennessee gun legal guidelines and made our group extra harmful. Tragedies like this underscore the pressing want for widespread sense, corresponding to reinstating background checks and gun licenses, and enacting new reforms, corresponding to a safety order, in order that police can take away firearms from an individual who threatens others,” she mentioned in an announcement obtained Via The Tennessee Holler.
Akbari and fellow democrats held similar pleas in 2021 because the Collierville Police Division responded to a mass capturing at a Kroger grocery store that left one particular person lifeless and 12 others injured.
Earlier this yr, a capturing at a Christian faculty in Nashville killed three youngsters and three adults.
