A gunman who killed his surgeon and three others at a Tulsa doctor’s office blamed the doctor for his continued pain after a recent back surgery and bought an AR-style rifle just hours before the attack, police said Thursday.
The patient repeatedly called the clinic complaining of pain and specifically targeted the doctor who performed the surgery, then committed suicide when police arrived, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said.
That doctor, Dr. Preston Phillips, was killed Wednesday, along with Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and visitor William Love, police said. The attack took place on the Saint Francis Health System campus in Tulsa. The boss identified the shooter as Michael Louis, 45, of Muskogee, Oklahoma.
It was the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States, including the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and an attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Memorial Day weekend saw several mass shootings across the country, including an open-air festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, though incidents of a single death most killed by weapons.
President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak on the killings in an evening speech and ask Congress to approve gun restrictions.
Louis was carrying a letter saying he was pointing at Phillips, Franklin said. The letter “made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who gets in his way,” Franklin said. “He blamed Dr. Phillips for continued pain after surgery.”
Franklin said Phillips underwent surgery on May 19 and Louis was discharged from the hospital on May 24.
He said Louis called the doctor’s office “several times over several days” reporting that he was still in pain and saw Phillips on Tuesday for “additional treatment.” Louis called the office again on Wednesday “complaining of back pain and wishing for further help,” he said.
A phone number listed for a Michael Louis address in Muskogee did not work on Thursday.
Phillips, 59, was an orthopedic surgeon interested in spine surgery and joint reconstruction, according to a profile on the clinic’s website. He once served as chief physician for the Tulsa WNBA team before the franchise moved out of state, according to Tulsa World.
Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, called Phillips a “consummate gentleman” and “a man we should all strive to imitate.” He said the three employees who were killed were “the three best people in the world” and that “they didn’t deserve to die that way.”
Husen was 48 and Glenn was 40, officials said.
Police have received reports that Love, 73, was keeping a door closed in hopes of allowing others to flee the gunman through another door, Franklin said in response to questions from reporters. Love was also a patient at the clinic, but was only accompanying someone on Wednesday, police said.
In a statement released by police on Thursday, Love’s family said she “knew his wife could not escape the building on her own. He sacrificed his life for her.”
Police believe Louis legally bought his weapons, Franklin said. Louis bought an AR-style semi-automatic rifle in the afternoon of the shooting and a gun on Sunday, the police chief said.
Franklin praised law enforcement, 911 and emergency operators for their “immediate response” to Wednesday’s attack. Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m., and contacted the gunman at 5:01 p.m., authorities said Wednesday.
Franklin said police believe Louis was shot about 39 seconds after first officers entered the building.
“Our training led us to take immediate action and without hesitation,” he said. “That’s exactly what the agents are doing and that’s what they did in this case.”
The time it took police officers in Uvalde, Texas, to confront the gunman during last week’s deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key focus of ‘this research. Officers waited more than an hour to enter the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman attacked with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, killing 19 children and two teachers.
Democratic leaders have stepped up their calls for more gun restrictions since the Uvalde shooting, while Republicans are emphasizing safer schools. The split reflects a partisan split that has hampered action in Congress and many state chapters on how best to respond to a record number of gun-related deaths in the U.S.
Oklahoma House Democrats called for a special session Thursday to consider gun safety legislation, but that is unlikely to happen in a GOP-controlled legislature that has been pushing for years to ease gun restrictions. of fire.
Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is running for re-election, said last week after the Texas shooting that it was too early to talk about gun policy. A pro-gun group, the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association, is an influential force in the state Capitol, and the first bill Stitt signed after taking office in 2019 was a measure that allows most adults to carry firearms openly without the necessary background. control or training.
Since January, there have been 12 shootings in which four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press / USA TODAY / Noreastern University’s massacre database. The shootings left 76 dead, including 35 adults and children in Buffalo, Uvalde and Tulsa, according to the database. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings.
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Murphy reported from Oklahoma City; Bleed of Little Rock, Arkansas; and Foody of Chicago. AP researchers Jennifer Farrar and Randy Herschaft contributed from New York.