New York hospital shooting: man kills at least one before killing himself – police

A man pulled a rifle from under his white lab coat and opened fire inside a Bronx hospital on Friday, police said, killing at least one person and wounding others before apparently killing himself.

Gunfire broke out at around 2.50pm on Friday inside the Bronx Lebanon hospital. An NYPD spokesman said “there are reports of several people shot” before adding on Twitter that “one shooter is deceased at the hospital”. The NYPD told people to “avoid the area of 1650 Grand Concourse”.

A subsequent NYPD tweet said: “The shooter is deceased. Several others are injured.”

A law enforcement official speaking anonymously told the Associated Press the gunman had been wearing a lab coat, with a rifle concealed inside. Police were still trying to identify how many people had been shot, the official said, and emergency crews had been kept from going inside the hospital while the shooter was at large.

The local ABC affiliate television station reported that two people had been shot and said both victims were believed to be men.

Police officials speaking anonymously subsequently told the AP the gunman killed at least one person before apparently killing himself, and that the gunman was a doctor who formerly worked at the hospital.

Television images showed the hospital surrounded by police cars and fire trucks. Police could be seen on the roof of the building with their guns drawn.

According to an account posted on Twitter by Felix Puno, who identified himself as patient in the radiology department on the fourth floor of the hospital, police conducted a room-by-room search, telling civilians to turn off the lights and remain in place.

“Building is in complete shut down, I was in the middle of getting an x-ray when security alerted us to the active shooter situation,” Puno tweeted.

Bronx Lebanon hospital center describes itself as the largest voluntary, not-for-profit healthcare system in the south and central Bronx. The 120-year-old hospital has nearly 1,000 beds spread across multiple units. Its emergency room is among the busiest in New York City.