A lone gunman opened fire at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital on Friday afternoon around 3 p.m., forcing patients and doctors to barricade themselves into rooms as the hospital was put on lockdown. At least one woman, believed to be a female doctor, is dead. At least six other people were injured, some seriously.
The suspect, formerly a doctor at the hospital, is also dead. Police officials confirmed that the gunman was “down” around 4 p.m, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Law-enforcement officials believe the suspect acted alone and no other threats to the hospital exist.
The shooter has been identified as 45-year-old Henry Bello, a family-medicine physician at the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital who reportedly quit in lieu of being fired for harassing an employee in 2015. Bello allegedly barged into the building armed with an assault rifle, which he hid beneath a doctor’s white lab coat before going on his shooting rampage on the 16th floor. Police found the suspect deceased on the 17th floor, the firearm beside him. Before he apparently took his life, Bello also tried to set himself on fire, setting off the sprinkler system and alarms, according to NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill.
Police reportedly went room to room to try to track down the shooter, and emergency-services personnel helped evacuate patients and hospital staff. Patients in hospital gowns and scrubs fanned out outside the hospital as heavily armed police secured the scene. The investigation is ongoing, but the FBI has said that, at this time, Bello has no links to terrorism.
This post has been updated throughout.
