Dr. Henry Bello, a physician who resigned after facing termination, was named as the lone gunman who opened fire on other doctors at Bronx’s Lebanon Hospital after hiding a rifle under a white lab coat.
Fox 5 New York confirmed the name of the ex-employee who had worked in family medicine before he opened fire with an AR- 15 rifle inside the hospital, sending patients, doctors, and nurses scrambling for cover and barricading doors. At least one person, believed to be a female doctor, has died and six people were shot.
Other news stories reported the name as Henry Bellow, but he’s listed as Dr. Henry Bello on the hospital’s website. NYPD wrote on Twitter that “an assault rifle was found nearby. The subject was wearing a white, medical type coat.”
Police responded to the reports of multiple doctors shot by an active shooter wearing a doctor’s coat and carrying a rifle around 3 p.m. at Lebanon Hospital. The hospital is located in the Bronx in New York.
The mass shooting unfolded at 173rd Street and Grand Concourse in the Mt. Eden section of the Bronx hospital, which is one of New York’s busiest. The carnage might have been even worse, but the injured fell inside a hospital equipped to treat them. “At least one doctor was being treated by people inside the hospital who had tied an emergency fire hose as a tourniquet,” according to The New York Times, which added that “police had described the gunman as a tall, thin man wearing a blue shirt and white lab coat. A police official said he had a long gun.”
“One doctor is dead and several doctors are fighting for their lives right now,” New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio said later.
The shooter “was known” to the hospital, The New York Post reported. Reports gave his age as 45. The shooter is now dead, reports CNN. Police said he committed suicide.
A graphic photo has emerged of Bello lying dead on the hospital floor. You can see it below, but be aware that it’s disturbing.
There were major warning signs in Bello’s life before the mass shooting, which spanned two floors as Bello opened fire on hospital employees, including other doctors. He had a criminal history.
According to Pix11, Dr. Bello had three prior arrests, including one for sexual abuse. The New York Post reported that Bello was arrested in August 2004 in Manhattan “following an incident in which a 23-year-old woman said an assailant grabbed her crotch, held her arms, lifted her up and carried her off, saying, ‘You’re coming with me.'”
Bello was “charged with sex abuse and unlawful imprisonment, sources said. The disposition of the case was unclear,” reported The Post, which added that records against Bello in a 2009 case are sealed.
New York records list his medical permit as “expired.”
The gunman also had personal troubles, although they were in the far past. In 2002, Bello was listed as a respondent in a California divorce that listed minor children.
According to The New York Daily News, police followed a trail of blood at the scene of the shooting, which is being investigated by police as a workplace violence incident, not terrorism.
The early reports came in for an active shooter at the hospital.
“Due to reports of a shooting incident at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, avoid the area of 1650 Grand Concourse,” NYPD tweeted as the shooting news broke. The ATF tweeted that it was responding to the scene to assist the NYPD. According to a tweet from NBC News, “Officials say the shooter in the Bronx, attempted to start a fire on the 16th floor of the hospital. Sprinklers knocked it down.”
The NYPD later revealed that Bello set himself on fire before committing suicide in the hallway.
One woman posted a photo on Instagram showing her barricaded in a room at the hospital, and others gave similar accounts of the panic inside the building. New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said the shooting erupted on the 16th floor and the gunman was found deceased on the 17th floor.
According to NBC 4, the shooter was wearing doctor’s attire. He “was dressed in a white doctor’s-type coat,” reported the television station. NYPD later confirmed this detail.
2. The Shooter Was a Family Physician Who Resigned Before Being Terminated
The shooter’s personal travails had spilled over into the work setting, where he’d recently been forced out of his job at the hospital.
The shooter was described as an “ex-employee,” reported The New York Daily News.
According to NBC, Bello “resigned from the hospital in 2015 in lieu of termination.” The New York Times reported that the doctor was accused of sexual harassment and didn’t leave his position voluntarily.
Bello was listed as a family physician on the hospital website. However, despite the fact that Bello is listed as a doctor on the hospital website, The New York Post reported that “there are no state records of a Henry Bello with a medical license.”
A Dr. Henry Bello comes up as a “student in an Organized Health Care Education/Training Program” in the National Provider Identifier Database. The New York Times reported that Bello had “received a limited permit to practice as an international medical graduate” to gain experience but the permit expired in 2016. He previously had a pharmacy technician license in California, according to the newspaper.
Witnesses said the gunman was determined to kill.
“I heard two doctors got shot 20 times, both of them,” said Jasmine Mercado, 24, to The New York Daily News. The New York newspaper reported that at least two of the victims were women.
3. Six People Were Shot by the Gunman Who Strode Through the Hospital in a Lab Coat
Witnesses described a frightening scene in which the man in the white lab coat – who some said was wearing all black but others said had on a green or blue shirt – walked through the hospital opening fire.
Bello was dressed all in black under the lab coat.
News reporters tweeted that police said at the scene that numerous people had been shot. The New York Post reported that those shot were doctors and that as many as three people were shot. CNN reported that “six people were wounded on the 16th floor, and five of those are in serious condition from gunshot wounds.”
The New York Times reported that those shot were doctors, and their condition was not known. PIX 11 later reported that one of the victims has died.
Patch also confirmed that multiple people were shot. The former doctor “had a rifle concealed inside inside the lab coat he was wearing,” reported PIX 11.
4. Doctors and Nurses Hid Inside the Hospital & a Woman’s Body Was Found Near the Shooter
According to CBS, there were reports that doctors and nurses had barricaded themselves inside the hospital as the gunfire broke out.
There were also reports that the suspect had barricaded himself inside the hospital with a rifle. However, police then confirmed that the suspect was down. “A total of 6 additional gunshot victims were removed to the ER of Hospital. 5 of them were seriously injured & 1 was shot in the leg,” the NYPD tweeted.
According to CNN, the suspect had ID on him, and “shot himself on the 16th floor.”
“The body of a woman who was shot was found near the body of the shooting suspect,” CNN reported. NYPD confirmed this account, tweeting:
“One shooter is deceased at the hospital,” a police spokesman confirmed on Twitter.
Police said that the shooter used an M-16 type rifle.
“Active shooting in Bronx Lebanon Hospital… Man dressed all in black. Smoke from the 16th floor,” the NYPD Special Operations Division tweeted.
5. Panicked People Posted to Social Media From Inside the Hospital
Frantic reports were posted to social media.
One person trapped at the hospital posted a video to Instagram in Spanish, saying, “just a guy stuck in a room in the hospital.”
According to PIX 11, “The 120-year-old hospital claims nearly 1,000 beds spread across multiple units. Its emergency room is among the busiest in New York City,” and it’s located near Yankee Stadium.
“I was in the middle of getting an X-ray when security alerted us to the active shooter situation and locked us in,” patient Felix Puno told the Daily News. “Police are here doing a floor-by-floor sweep.”
Krystal Rivera, 23, a hospital patient, told CNN she heard gunshots.
“I barricaded the door with an IV machine, two chairs and my whole bed,” Rivera said to CNN, which described her as seeing a man wearing “a white lab coat” with a rifle.
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