Gunman Opens Fire At Bronx Lebanon Hospital: Shooter Identified

Around 2:50 p.m. on Friday, a gunman opened fire at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, shooting multiple people in what authorities say is a “workplace violence” incident. Police say the shooter, a doctor and former employee of the hospital, is dead. Early reports indicate that he killed at least one person before killing himself.

The shooter, who has been identified as Dr. Henry Bello, a family medicine physician, was formerly employed at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. According to witnesses, he was wearing a white doctor’s coat, under which he hid his rifle when he entered the hospital.

NBC New York reports that “four to six people” were shot, and Bello killed at least one person before he turned the gun on himself.

The identities of the victims and the extent of their injuries have not yet been reported, though NBC notes that a witness said one of the victims was a doctor:

One of the gunshot victims was a doctor who had been shot in the hand, witness Gonzalo Carazo said.

“It was scary seeing the blood on the doctors,” Carazo said. “I saw blood on the floor, I saw blood on one of the doctor’s hands.”

Another witness, Hilda, told NBC, “When I heard that my heart started beating and I prayed. I called my pastor to pray for us. I told everybody to pray because we didn’t know what would happen to us. … We locked the door and everybody laid down on the floor. I’m sickened.”

CBS New York reports that police went “floor by floor searching for the shooter,” while a swarm of emergency response vehicles surrounded the hospital:

A “red alert” went off within the hospital, which was placed on lockdown. Doctors and nurses barricaded themselves within.

“Everybody said ‘Code red, shut your doors.’ We didn’t know what was going on, we were scared. I heard people screaming. … I pushed the chair to the door so nobody could come in,” a hospital patient named Toby told CBS2’s Valerie Castro. “I got scared. I started crying, I didn’t know what to do.”

Both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill were on the scene soon after the shooting, NBC reports.

Video below via CBS New York: