x

Society

Shooting at Suburban NY Hospital was Murder-Suicide

August 8, 2018

VALHALLA, N.Y. (AP) — A man shot a female patient and then killed himself at a suburban New York hospital Wednesday, police said.

Police were trying to determine the connection between the two, who were found in a fourth-floor room after gunfire rang out around 9:40 a.m. at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, a major medical campus about 35 miles north of Manhattan. No one else was in the room at the time, Westchester County Police Commissioner Thomas Gleason said.

“There appears to be some type of family relationship between the two victims and a murder-suicide-type situation,” Westchester County Police Commissioner Thomas Gleason said. He said both people were in their 70s.

The woman was found in a bed, the man on the floor, and a .38-caliber revolver on the scene, he said. It’s unknown how many shots were fired.

Dr. Srihari Naidu, an interventional cardiologist at the hospital, told The Associated Press by phone that he was at his office in a nearby building when he got an “active shooter alert,” followed by a lockdown notification that lasted for about a half-hour.

The building where the shooting happened is “very well-guarded,” he said, and many areas cannot be accessed without badges.

Police said the hospital’s armed security staff responded immediately, and police arrived within two minutes.

Jatziri Escobar, a patient who arrived at the hospital shortly after 9 a.m., told The Journal News that she was in a room on the first floor when staff ran through the building alerting patients about the active shooting.

“I was kinda scared, but one of the officers told me to relax and all would be OK,” said Escobar, 22, of Elmsford.

Photos posted on The Journal News and social media showed police blocking the entrance to the hospital and workers in lab coats and scrubs gathered outside it.

The hospital totals over 600 adult, pediatric and psychiatric beds in a campus in northern Westchester.

Former President Bill Clinton went there in 2004 for chest pains and shortness of breath; a test revealed narrowing of several vessels of his heart, and he underwent a quadruple bypass three days later at a Manhattan hospital. The hospital’s burn center treated ESPN anchor Hannah Storm for burns to her face, hands, chest and neck in a propane gas grill accident in 2012.

Shootings at hospitals aren’t unheard-of: A 2012 study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine counted 154 of them from 2000 through 2011.

In July 2017, a doctor who had been forced to resign from Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York City two years earlier amid a sexual harassment claim opened fire inside the hospital on June 30, killing a doctor and hurting six others, authorities said. Police said the doctor, Henry Bello, killed himself at the scene.

Hospitals have been beefing up security in the wake of last year’s Bronx shooting.

Two hospitals on Long Island recently started arming their security guards. Another now requires visitors to show identification and obtain a hospital-issued guest pass before passing through security turnstiles.

Other New York-area hosptials have been hiring police officers to provide security.

A third-party company provides security for Westchester Medical Center.

RELATED

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Harvey Weinstein's landmark New York sexual assault conviction was thrown out by an appeals court Thursday, and most of the dozens of civil cases filed against him since he became a central target in the #MeToo movement in 2017 have either been settled or dismissed.

Top Stories

Columnists

A pregnant woman was driving in the HOV lane near Dallas.

General News

NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.

Video

Over 100 Pilot Whales Beached on Western Australian Coast Have Been Rescued, Officials Say

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — More than 100 long-finned pilot whales that beached on the western Australian coast Thursday have returned to sea, while 29 died on the shore, officials said.

On Monday, April 22, 2024, history was being written in a Manhattan courtroom.

PARIS - With heavy security set for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games during a time of terrorism, France has asked to use a Greek air defense system as well although talks are said to have been going on for months.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A tiny Philip Morris product called Zyn has been making big headlines, sparking debate about whether new nicotine-based alternatives intended for adults may be catching on with underage teens and adolescents.

Enter your email address to subscribe

Provide your email address to subscribe. For e.g. [email protected]

You may unsubscribe at any time using the link in our newsletter.