Sia per i pazienti che per il personale, il shooting at a Minnesota healthcare center that killed one person and wounded four others has been traumatic, ha detto il centro in un comunicato.
“I nostri cuori erano spezzati,” Allina Health said Tuesday night. “The Wright County Sheriff’s Office is leading the ongoing investigation, and we are assisting in any way we can. Proprio adesso, our focus is on supporting our staff, le loro famiglie, and our patients.”
A 67-year-old man Gregory Ulrich is in custody after the shooting Tuesday morning in the town of Buffalo, Police Chief Pat Budke said. While law enforcement is familiar with Ulrich and believes he acted alone, there is still much they are investigating about the incident, hanno detto i funzionari.
Nel frattempo, the community is left to process the threat to a place of care.
“As caretakers of victims of gunshots and other violent injuries, nurses and healthcare workers are acutely aware that violence could easily come to the doors of their workplace too,” the Minnesota Nurse Association said in a statement. “Seeing other workers become victims shakes any hospital worker to their core.”
Buffalo Mayor Teri Lachermeier said that officials would be making phone calls to ensure that the mental health of everyone involved is being cared for and that “we’re taking care of those people who are in need of our help.”
Le vittime
Police found multiple victims when they responded to a 911 call about shots fired just before 11 a.m., Budke said.
The names and identities of the victims have not been released. Il clinic’s website describes the location as a convenient health care option and part of the Buffalo Crossroads family clinic.
Buffalo is about 40 miles northwest of Minneapolis. The city has a population of about 16,000 persone, and the city’s residents are about 97.5% White with a median household income slightly above the state average, according to the US Census.
When he arrived, the sheriff found “a horrible-looking scene” in the clinic, and emergency responders rendered aid and removed the victims.
One of the victims died at Hennepin County Medical Center, according to hospital spokeswoman Christine Hill. Three of the victims remain in critical but stable condition at North Memorial Health Hospital, and the fourth individual has been released from that facility.
Il sospetto
As victims were received care, police took Ulrich into custody, a man Budke said the shooting was “targeted at that facility or someone within that facility” given the suspect’s history of conflict.
“We are very familiar with the suspect,” Egli ha detto. “There is a history of him being unhappy with health care — with the health care he received,” Egli ha detto, adding the suspect has lived in the area a “long time.”
Wright County Sheriff Sean Deringer said Ulrich’s history with law enforcement dates to 2003.
“The suspect has lived in the community “for quite a long time and has had contact with health care within the community during that time,” Budke said.
“It’s a history that spans several years, and there’s certainly a history of him being unhappy with the health care that he received,” Budke said. “There’s also, within that history, nothing to indicate that we would’ve been in the situation that we are at today.”
At this point, there is no information that leads officials to believe that there is “any nexus with any type of domestic terrorism” connected with the shooting, Budke said.
