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Bronx-Lebanon Killer Sent Email To Press Before His Shooting Spree, Had Been Issued A Limited Medical Permit

By Dawn Papple
Published on: 03:40 PST, Jul 2, 2017

Dr. Henry Bello, the physician who opened fire at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in New York city before setting himself on fire and killing himself, reportedly sent an email to the press just hours before his rampage. In the email, which was sent to the New York Daily News, Bello blamed hospital officials for ruining his career. Bello had not been employed with the hospital in two years, but he wore a white medical lab coat while he shot his victims, started two fires and then shot himself to death.

In the email to New York Daily News, Bello said that the hospital had blocked the way to obtaining his license to practice medicine in the State of New York. Bello also accused the hospital of not siding with him against complaints that he threatened a colleague. In that email, Bello wrote that he actually emailed the Bronx-Lebanon colleague that he allegedly threatened “congratulating her” for his “termination.” He wrote that she managed to get him terminated because she sent out an email “to everybody telling them to file complaints” against him.

“This hospital terminated my road to a licensure to practice medicine,” Bello wrote Friday afternoon. “First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse.”

Bello blamed two doctors by name, but the Daily News blocked the names of those doctors. Bello also claimed $400,000 of his money went into the hospital.

The email rant to the Daily News didn’t actually threaten violence, but one source, Dionne Morales, told CBS that Bello had threaten to kill people before.

Police are still investigating the Bronx-Lebanon rampage, but The Nation’s report indicated that Bello had earned his medical degree from the Caribbean nation of Dominica. That information comes from David Wims, a lawyer who represented the doctor in an unemployment insurance claim. Bello worked as a pharmacy technician with the city’s Health and Hospitals system after he finished medical school and until he was hired by Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in 2014 after spending time in homeless shelters and transitional housing. The New York Times reported that he worked at Bronx-Lebanon on “a limited permit from New York State to practice medicine as an international medical graduate.”

“Dr. Bello was essentially an extra pair of hands for the department of family medicine at the 17-story hospital, one of the biggest and busiest in New York City. Dr. Sridhar Chilimuri, the hospital’s physician in chief, said Dr. Bello could treat patients and prescribe medication, as long as other doctors were looking over his shoulder, and only at Bronx-Lebanon.”

The Nation reported that multiple sources claim that Bello resigned from the hospital, because he faced termination. Reportedly, he would have been fired over accusations of sexual harassment. According to the New York Daily News, the newspaper Bello chose to send the email to before his shooting spree began, resigned early in 2015, and reported that hospital spokesperson Errol Schneer confirmed that Bello was employed by the hospital as physician in August of 2014.

The New York Daily News reported that Bello was trying to kill 48-year-old Dr. Kamran Ahmed. Ahmed said he has no idea what would have motivated Bello to want to kill him.

“The strange thing is he was nice with me,” Ahmed said Saturday night. “I’m shocked. He had a problem with almost everybody.”

Reportedly, Ahmed has been speaking with police investigators. Ahmed’s neighbor reportedly claimed that Bello had sent Ahmed threatening emails, but Ahmed declined to confirm the claim with the press.

When Bello didn’t find Ahmed, who had the day off work, he reportedly opened fire, shooting at random.

While shooting at random, Bello shouted, “Why didn’t you help me out when I was getting in trouble?” Ahmed knew Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam, the woman Bello killed when he didn’t find Ahmed. Tam wasn’t supposed to be working at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center that day. It was her day off, but she was filling in for someone else.

“Everybody loves her,” Ahmed said of the Bronx-Lebanon’s murdered physician. “She loves to teach…. She’s excellent. I feel so sorry about her, she was there to cover for one of the attendings.”

Police are still investigating how Bello passed security, but the hospital spokesperson said that “he was wearing a white coat and he looked perfectly normal walking in.”

Five of six shooting victims who did survived Bello’s rampage had improved and were reportedly in stable condition as of Saturday night. A sixth victim in the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center rampage was in critical, but stable condition, according to Bronx-Lebanon’s Chief of Hospital Dr. Sridhar Chilimuri.

[Featured Image by Mary Altaffer/AP Images]

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