Doctor seriously injured, suspect dead in Brigham Hospital shooting
A doctor suffered life-threatening injuries after being shot Tuesday morning at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and the suspect has died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Boston police said.
The incident happened at the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center, which is across the street from the main entrance of the hospital, a Harvard teaching hospital often listed as one of the nation’s finest.
Police Commissioner William B. Evans said the doctor is believed to have sustained two gunshot wounds. His colleagues rushed him to treatment at the hospital’s emergency room. The suspect was found in an examination room, with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“There is no threat out there,” he said. “The area is secure. ... Right now we’re looking into the possible motive of it.”
The Shapiro Center was locked down after the shooting, but the hospital later announced it was returning to normal operations.
The streets around the Shapiro Center were cordoned off with yellow police tape shortly before noon. Two ambulances and about a half-dozen police cars were parked in front of the building.
The incident trapped staff, patients and family members inside the building – sometimes in exam rooms – for about 45 minutes, witnesses said.
Meagan P. McEachron, of Saratoga, N.Y., was on the second floor of the Shapiro Building where her boyfriend underwent cardiac surgery Tuesday morning. She was with her boyfriend’s mother.
They met with the surgeon who told them that the surgery was done. About two minutes after they got that good news, an announcement was made over the loudspeaker ordering the immediate evacuation of the second floor, McEachron said.
At about the same time, police officers rushed into the room, guns drawn, shouting at people to “Get down!” or “Get back!” she said. The arrival of police generated panic among those in the space, she said.
People started screaming and then running, panic-stricken, to the glassed walkway that connects the Shapiro to the other hospital buildings, she said.
“It was pretty scary,’’ McEachron said.
After McEachron spoke with reporters, a police officer asked her to leave the scene, apparently so she could be interviewed by investigators.
Irene Stefanidis had brought her father to the Shapiro Center for some testing. While inside an exam room on the first floor, someone announced over the loudspeaker that a life-threatening emergency was taking place on the second floor, and that everyone should go into a room and lock the door behind them.
While Stefanidis and her father were in an exam room, nurses came by and told them to lock the door, which they did. Father and daughter huddled together there for about 45 minutes until a second announcement was made over the loudspeaker, telling them to unlock the door and leave the building.
As law enforcement turned the hospital into a crime scene, a woman with a bloody bandage on her left arm could be seen being escorted from the Shapiro building to another building on the complex while being comforted by a second woman. The woman with the bloody bandage had a blue Brigham name tag on her clothing.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office dispatched prosecutors to the crime scene, a spokesman said.
The State Police said in a tweet they were assisting Boston police at a “reported shooting.”
Streets were ordered closed during the search, and the MBTA briefly shut down Green Line service between Brigham Circle and Heath Street. State Police advised drivers to avoid the area.
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