BOSTON — The shooting at a medical facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Wednesday claimed the life of a doctor who started his career in Boston.
Dr. Preston Phillips graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1990 according to his physician profile with the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine and he did two fellowships at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston in 1986 and 1996, according to his hospital profile.
“Dr. Phillips trained in Spine Surgery at BIDMC in 1996 and has since remained closely engaged with our community,” said Edward K Rodriguez MD, Chief, Department of Orthopedics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. ”He was an exemplary surgeon and individual who represented all that is best in Orthopedics. He was always devoted to his patients and a remarkable role model for residents and fellows. He will be very much missed by everyone who knew and worked with him.”
“On behalf of the entire Boston Children’s Hospital community, I extend my deepest sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues — current and former — of Dr. Preston Phillips and the other victims of the Tulsa shootings,” said Boston Children’s President and CEO, Dr. Kevin Churchwell. “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the senseless and violent act that took Dr. Phillips’ talented and committed life. This is yet another reminder of the pressing need for strong, effective and comprehensive national gun safety legislation that addresses the escalating public health crisis of gun violence,” Dr. Churchwell continued.
Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said Thursday that the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain. Franklin says the doctor who performed the surgery was Dr. Preston Phillips.
Dr. Phillips was killed along with Dr. Stephanie J. Husen who specialized in sports medicine, receptionist Amanda Glenn and patient William Love.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/XIFJOGEWWVEELCECUXFH6XKBE4.jpg)
Dr. Preston Phillips and Dr. Stephanie J. Husen, (St. Francis Health System)
Authorities say the man who opened fire at a Tulsa medical office, Michael Louis, had purchased an AR-style rifle hours before the shooting.
Authorities said the gunman carried a rifle and handgun during the shooting at the medical building on a hospital campus, the latest in a series of deadly mass shootings across the country in recent weeks.
“This person didn’t come to a hospital looking to shoot random people for any reason he had very specific purpose today he went to this floor he went to this building cause he had intent,” Capt. Richard Meulenberg of the Tulsa Police Department said.
Fox 23 in Tulsa reports the call came in for an active shooter at 4:52 p.m. Wednesday. By 5:01 p.m., Tulsa police were on the second floor of the Natalie building where they found the gunman and the victims dead.
Dominica Smith, a nurse who works in the Natalie Building described the scene as chaotic and scary.
“We were able to text family and ask them to keep us in prayer, and keep in touch with our family to let them know we’re ok,” Smith said. “I’m very shaken up, I mean, I’ve seen it on TV the last couple of weeks, and it’s just, just startling to just have to go through that. it’s very scary, it’s scary.”
The Natalie Building houses an orthopedic center.
KOKI reported that St. Francis has canceled appointments due to Wednesday’s shooting.
“This campus is sacred ground for our community,” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said Wednesday. “For decades, this campus has been a place where people come to work – heroes have come to work – to save the lives of people in our community. Just in the last few years, in the greatest public crisis our city has had to face, this has been the facility more than any other that has worked to save the lives of people in this city.”
