NEW YORK – A doctor with a rifle hidden under a lab coat opened fire Friday at the Bronx hospital where he used to work, killing one physician and leaving several other doctors fighting for their lives, authorities said. The gunman fatally shot himself after first trying to set himself on fire, they said.
Authorities described a chaotic scene at Bronx Lebanon Hospital as gunfire erupted at around 2:50 p.m., spreading terror throughout the hospital as employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives.
“I thought I was going to die,” said Renaldo Del Villar, a 55-year-old patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.
Law enforcement officials identified the shooter as Dr. Henry Bello, who was described on the hospital website as a family medicine physician. He resigned from the hospital in 2015 after some sort of dispute, according to one law enforcement official, who said Bello used an AR-15 in the attack.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the still-unfolding investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.