Gunman in Oklahoma shooting killed surgeon treating him for back pain

A gunman who shot 4 people dead at a hospital in the US state of Oklahoma wanted to kill the surgeon who’d operated on him. The perpetrator, Michael Louis, blamed Preston Phillips for back pain he was experiencing following the surgery, say local police.

According to an AFP report, Louis stormed the Saint Francis hospital building in search of Dr Phillips, shooting anyone who got in his way. The suspect was carrying both a semi-automatic rifle and a handgun. Reports say that he had recently been calling the hospital to complain of back pain following a surgical procedure.

Wendell Franklin, chief of Tulsa Police, says officers found “a letter on the suspect, which made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr Phillips and anyone who got in his way. He blamed Dr Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery.”

According to Franklin, the suspect shot the surgeon dead, along with another doctor, a receptionist, and a patient.

“They stood in the way and Louis gunned them down.”

The gunman then turned the weapon on himself. It’s understood he had bought a semi-automatic rifle at a local shop just before his shooting rampage.

America’s latest mass shooting follows a school shooting in Texas last week, in which 19 young children and 2 teachers died. The country’s long history of gun violence has led to repeated calls for tighter gun control, but US lawmakers find themselves repeatedly thwarted by the country’s powerful gun lobby.

Data from the Gun Violence Archive shows that so far this year, there have been 233 mass shootings in the USA. A mass shooting is defined as when 4 or more people, excluding the perpetrator, are injured or killed in a single event.

SOURCE: AFP