Tenn. hospital shooter mentally ill, had grudge, police say

Published 10:49 am Tuesday, April 20, 2010

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Police say a gunman who opened fire outside a Tennessee hospital was mentally ill and thought a monitoring device had been implanted in him during an appendectomy in 2001.

Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV identified the gunman as Abdo Ibssa, a naturalized citizen from Ethiopia. The gunman shot three hospital workers, killing one, before killing himself.

Owen said Ibssa first entered a medical tower near Parkwest Medical Center and asked for the doctor who performed the appendectomy. He then went to another area where patients are discharged and opened fire.

Owen said a note alleging the doctor implanted a chip was found in Ibssa’s apartment after the attack. Owen said Ibssa’s family had him committed for mental treatment in February.

The shooting happened Monday outside the discharge area at Parkwest Medical Center, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said. Police said they had found no connection between any of the women shot and the man.

Cab driver Freddys Sakhleh said the man seemed angry and depressed. He told The Associated Press he picked up the gunman outside an apartment building and they made several stops on the way to the hospital, including at an ATM, where the gunman got $20. The man said little about himself, only that he was from Atlanta.

“He looked like, you know, angry, depressed. He was kind of itchy,” Sakhleh said.

The man eventually got out of the cab at the hospital, handed the driver the $20 and told him to wait. He came back to the cab, pulled a gun from his waist and started firing, Sakhleh said.

“I called 911, and I said, ‘Please send some people here, this man is shooting like crazy,’” Sakhleh said. He said the gunman then shot himself in the head.

It did not appear that any of the women were related to the gunman or that there was any connection between them. The women were either former or current hospital workers, spokesman Darrell DeBusk said.

Photographs of the discharge area, where vehicles can pick up patients, showed a man’s body lying face down, surrounded by police. Yellow crime tape was stretched around the area and police took photographs inside of the van taxi.

The two women who survived the shooting were taken to the trauma center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Spokeswoman Karen Bultman said this morning the women were in stable condition.

The women’s families issued statements expressing thanks for prayers and support.

The family of Ariane Reagan Guerin, a 26-year-old employee at Parkwest, said they were hearing promising information about her prognosis. The family of Nancy Chancellor, 32, said she was doing well.

The woman killed was Rachel Wattenbarger, 40. Her father, Ray Wattenbarger, said she had worked at the hospital for about five or six years, helping discharge the elderly.

Sakhleh, the cab driver, said he was lucky to be alive.

“My wife always tells me, ‘Be careful, be careful.’ But after tonight, I’m going to be real careful.”