Tulsa shooting - live: Victim revealed as top WNBA doctor as shooter’s AR-15 and pawn-shop gun under scrutiny

Tributes for the victims of the Tulsa hospital shooting where a former patient shot and killed five people, including himself, began pouring in in the days following Wednesday’s attack.

Dr Komi Folly, an internist at the site of the fatal shooting, commemorated Dr Preston Phillips, the orthopedic surgeon who performed back surgery on the gunman just weeks earlier and was targeted by the 45-year-old in Wednesday’s attack, as a father figure.

“Dr Phillips, I thought we were preparing to go on a surgical mission in Togo, but I found out yesterday during a shooting at work that a gunman took you away from me, our mission team, your family, your patients, and the Togolese people,” the deceased doctor’s colleague wrote on Facebook. “You always call me a son and I call you father.”

Dr Phillips had travelled with the internist on several occasions to Dr Folly’s home in Togo, Africa, where the pair worked alongside other volunteers to build clinics and hospitals and provide medical care to those in need.

“You told me last week at work during lunchtime to not stop this project in Togo in case something happens to you. I did not know that you were giving me the last advice for our journey,” Dr Folly wrote. “I am so sad to see you go without a goodbye. Your work will continue. You will be missed. I love you. See you in heaven one day.”

Dr Gannon Gill, who runs an orthopedic urgent care clinic at St Francis Hospital in Tulsa, recounted how he escaped the ‘labyrinth’ inside the facility during Wednesday’s mass shooting.

Mr Gill told The New York Times that he initially heard what sounded like gunfire, and told his patient they needed to evacuate.

“There was an initial ‘What was that?’” Mr Gill, said, before turning his attention back to his patient. “Let’s go. I don’t think this is good.”

He guided his patient through a ‘labyrinth’ of interior doors and hallways to move away from the sound of the shooting before he and a group of colleagues emerged in the hospital garage.

While in the garage, Mr Gill said he encountered a patient who had encountered the shooter inside the hospital. According to the patient, the shooter told him and his wife to leave and that he was not there for them.

William Love, 54, died in the Tulsa hospital shooting holding a door closed to protect himself and his wife from an active shooter inside the facility.

His family and friends are remembering him as a hero.

“He was the kind of guy that they don’t make anymore,” his son-in-law told The Oklahoman. “That’s why he held that door.”

The mass shooting at St Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the 223rd mass shooting in the US this year according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The Gun Violence Archive classifies a mass shooting as any shooting in which at least four people are shot excluding the shooter.

ICYMI: The ex-wife of the Tulsa gunman who killed five people, including himself, on a hospital campus in Oklahoma this week made a call to 911 approximately half an hour after the mass shooting began, according to local authorities.

Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin told Tahlequah Daily News that his department received a call from the neighbouring Cherokee County Sheriff’s offce at 5.24pm, about 30 minutes after Louis had entered the second floor of the Natalie Medical Building and killed two doctors, a receptionist and a patient of the facility.

“This would have been a half hour after the event occurred,” Mr Franklin told the news outlet. “We received two follow-up phone calls from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office providing clarifying information. All of this information was after the fact,” he added.

According to the sheriff from Cherokee County who spoke with the woman on the 911 call, she identified Louis as her ex-husband and told the dispatcher that she believed he could be planning a shooting in Tulsa.

Read more from The Independent below.

ICYMI: The Tulsa gunman’s ex-wife, who is a doctor in Oklahoma, had her attorneys deliver a statement to KJRH reporter Naomi Keitt, which the journalist later shared on her Facebook page.

“Dr. Edith Lubin, the former wife of Mr. Louis, expresses her deepest condolences for the tragic losses that occurred June 1 in Tulsa,” the statement began, noting that Louis had been recovering from his back surgery with his ex-wife before the hospital shooting. “She was not aware of Mr. Louis possessing any weapons or had any intent of harming anyone. Dr. Lubin is shocked by the news. She consented last night to a search of her home and has fully cooperated with law enforcement in their investigation. She is not aware of any note left by Mr. Louis indicating the planning of this tragic act.”

Ms Lubin also offered condolences for the victims’ families, friends and colleagues, writing in the statement that she is “praying” for all those affected.

“She acknowledges everyone’s concerns in trying to understand what happened, but she is at a loss for an explanation other than the effect of continuing pain to Mr Louis during his recovery,” the statement said, before asking that she and “her family be allowed to deal with their personal grief” and with “the sadness for the losses to all other persons” affected by these events.

ICYMI: The John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, a non-profit based in Tulsa committed to “transform[ing] the bitterness and mistrust caused by years of racial division” into a hopeful future of reconciliation and cooperation for the city, announced they’d be organising a memorial to mourn the victims of Wednesday’s shooting.

“Words cannot convey the pain of this moment in our community, but words are what are needed for us to continue in community,” the non-profit wrote on social media. “This time, this has hit home for us, here, at the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation.”

Dr Preston Phillips, one of the victims from the Tulsa hospital shooting, was a board member of the centre. While a board member, Dr Phillips reportedly chaired its scholarship committee, recruited fellow members of his fraternity for black professionals to review applications and went on to mentor the winners through post-secondary education, according to Tulsa World.

The memorial is scheduled to take place on 3 June at 6pm at the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park around the Tower of Reconciliation, the organisation said.

“While shock and horror of violence seems to be all around, we know we can gather in places to remember,” the non-profit wrote on Facebook.

ICYMI: Shortly after local authorities identified the four victims of the mass shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the tributes for the hospital workers began pouring in from colleagues and former patients who characterised the two doctors and receptionist as some of “warmest people I ever met”.

Lisa Dunaway Grant, a patient of Dr Stephanie Husen, paid tribute to her former doctor in a Facebook post, writing that she was “heartbroken” at the news of the 48-year-old’s death.

“Dr Husen was my orthopedic doctor. I looooved her so much! She was so very compassionate and caring‼️‼️‼️This is sooooo not fair,” Ms Grant wrote.

Amy Maloy, a clinical assistant at the same hospital where the Tulsa gunman shot and killed five people, including himself, remembered the doctor of osteopathic medicine as a “true gem” who was “one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met”.

“She was patient, enduring, and SO SWEET,” wrote Ms Maloy, who worked alongside all three hospital workers. “She took time with each patient, she was thorough, she wanted to really know you so she could help the best way she knew how.”

Amanda Glenn, the receptionist who was murdered in the attack at Saint Francis hospital, was described by Ms Maloy as being “brave, funny” and “hard-working”.

“Amanda knew how to keep a calm head in crisis - when her family lost their home in 2019 due to flooding - she was at work and in her spare moments finding a place for her family and keeping both work and home ships afloat,” said Ms Maloy. “She was the type of mom and wife I look up to.”

On Dr Preston Phillips, the surgeon who performed back surgery on the gunman earlier this month, Ms Maloy noted how he leaves behind a “remarkable legacy”.

“Dr Preston Phillips was one of the warmest people I ever met. He was jolly, silly, and he was a force to be reckoned with. He was stern in his practice, but KIND,” she wrote.

ICYMI: The sister of Dr. Preston Phillips, who was the target of the mass shooter at a Tulsa hospital, told MLive.com that during her last conversation with her brother, she asked him to play ‘Taps’ on his saxophone.

Taps is a bugle call traditionally associated with military flag ceremonies and funerals.

Dr Phillips was a skilled saxophone player, and his sister asked him to dust off his horn and play the song to honor the Memorial Day weekend and their family’s history of military service.

“I said, ‘I know you’re driving home from work and I know you’re tired — and I want you to lay down when you get home — but before you do lay down, I want you to pull out your saxophone and I want you to play ‘Taps’ for me,’” Paula Phillips-Terrell, Dr Phillips’ sister, said.

“That was the last conversation I had with him,” she said. “I still can’t believe that’s the last conversation I had with him.”

ICYMI: After a gunman shot and killed four people in Tulsa while targeting the doctor who’d performed back surgery on him only weeks earlier, medical professionals across Oklahoma are raising the alarm about the potential threats they face on a daily basis.

“Our staff is already upset. They’re concerned. They’re jittery. They’re concerned about what are we going to do here,” Oklahoma State Medical Association president Dr David Holden told News on 6.

Michael Louis, a patient of Dr Preston Phillips, sought him out during Wednesday’s deadly shooting after he’d called the orthopaedic surgeon “several times” complaining about his ongoing back pain following the 19 May operation.

Dr Holden told the news station on Thursday that the physical structure of a hospital only intensifies the kinds of potentially dangerous situations doctors and hospital staff could find themselves in if a disgruntled, and armed, patient decided to attack.

“Multiple rooms, multiple stairways, multiple access points. That’s what especially concerning throughout the facility, and that’s what especially concerning about any medical facility,” he said. “Our life is going to change. Each facility, every hospital, every medical building is going to have to evaluate their particular situation, their design, and what’s it going to take to get that security.”