After he was forced to resign as a family medicine doctor amid sexual harassment allegations, he told colleagues he would be back to kill them.
NEW YORK (AP) — It took two years, but Dr. Henry Bello made good on his threats.
After he was forced to resign as a family medicine doctor amid sexual harassment allegations, he told colleagues he would be back to kill them.
On Friday, Bello returned to Bronx Lebanon Hospital with an AM-15 assault rifle tucked under his white lab coat and opened fire in his old department, killing one doctor and critically wounding six other people at the hospital, according to law enforcement officials.
Bello then shot himself, and staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side, officials said. A photo showed the doctor on a blood-spattered floor as police stood over him.
Now, detectives are trying to piece together what prompted Bello to snap two years after he was forced out, and whether he was hunting for someone in particular when he went to the 16th floor and started shooting.
«There are many, many details that we’re still putting together, » Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that terrorism was not involved in the attack. «This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere.»
His former co-workers described a man who was aggressive, loud, and threatening.
«All the time he was a problem, » said Dr. David Lazala, who trained Bello as a family medicine doctor. When Bello was forced out in 2015, he sent Lazala an email blaming him for the dismissal.
«We fired him because he was kind of crazy, » Dr. Maureen Kwankam told the Daily News. «He promised to come back and kill us then.»
The Daily News reported Saturday that it had received an email purportedly from Bello about two hours before the rampage.
«This hospital terminated my road to a licensure to practice medicine, » the email said. «First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse.»
He also blamed a doctor for blocking his chances at getting a chance to practice medicine.
People described a chaotic scene as gunfire erupted, spreading terror throughout the medical facility as employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives after hearing an announcement warning of someone in the building with a weapon.
«I thought I was going to die, » said Renaldo Del Villar, a patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.
Shortly after receiving a 911 call about an active shooter, police officers went floor by floor, their guns drawn, looking for the gunman. Fifteen minutes later they confirmed he was dead in the building.
Bello may have doused himself with an accelerant like gasoline and tried to set himself on fire before shooting himself, officials said. Sprinklers extinguished the fire.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the still-unfolding investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
