Shooting at a clinic in Tulsa: the assailant went to kill a doctor who operated on him because his back hurt

TULSA, Oklahoma.- Tulsa police revealed Thursday that the gunman who killed four people at a health center in that city in the state of Oklahoma He went to the scene to kill a doctor whom he blamed for the pain he suffered after a back operation.

The assailant, identified as Michael Louis, entered a campus building St. Francis Health System con an AR-15 type rifle that he bought yesterday and opened fire. Total, killed two doctors and two other people, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said at a news conference. Later he committed suicide

The aggressor, 45-year-old from Muskogee, Okla. called the clinic insistently complaining of pain and specifically targeted the doctor who performed the surgery, Franklin said, noting that Louis had a letter with him yesterday announcing that he wanted to ward off Phillips. The letter “made it clear that he entered with the intention of killing Dr. Phillips and anyone who stood in his way,” Franklin said. “He blamed Dr. Phillips for the continued pain after the surgery.”

Louis did kill Dr. Phillips, and also Dr. Stephanie Husenthe receptionist Amanda Glenn and the patient William Love.

Phillips was an orthopedic surgeon specializing in spinal surgeries and joint reconstruction, according to a profile on the clinic’s website. She had also served as the lead physician for the Tulsa women’s NBA team before the franchise moved out of state, according to Tulsa World.

Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, called Phillips a “consummate gentleman” and “a man who we should all strive to emulate”. In addition, he stated that the other three murdered were “the three best people in the whole world” and that “They didn’t deserve to die this way.”

The police believe that Louis he bought his guns legallyFranklin pointed out. The AR-style semi-automatic rifle was purchased the same afternoon as the shooting and a handgun last Sunday.

The incident in Tulsa occurred after two mass shootings that shocked americans – the attack on a school in Uvalde, Texas, and another on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York – and reopened an old debate about the tightening of controls on the possession of firearms and the role of mental health in the epidemic of armed violence that plagues the country.

Democratic leaders expanded their calls for tighter restrictions on guns since the Uvalde shooting, while Republicans emphasize more safety in schools. The division reflects a partisan divide that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols on how best to respond to a record number of gun-related deaths in the United States.

Democrats in the Oklahoma House of Representatives called Thursday for a special session to consider gun safety legislation, but that’s unlikely to happen in a GOP-controlled legislature that has been pushing for years to loosen gun restrictions. Firearms.

The Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, who is running for reelection, said last week after the Texas shooting that it was too early to talk about gun policy. A pro-gun group, the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association, is an influential force in the state Capitol, and the first bill Stitt signed into law after taking office in 2019 was a measure that allows most adults to openly carry firearms without background checks or training.

Since January, there were twelve shootings in which four or more people were killed, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Murder Database. Those shootings left 76 muertos, including 31 adults and children in Buffalo and Texas, the database says. The death toll does not include those suspected in the shootings.

Reuters and AP agencies