Tulsa shooting: what happened in Oklahoma hospital, who was shooter and why did he target Dr Preston Phillips?

A man who blamed his surgeon for ongoing pain after a recent back operation bought a rifle hours before opening fire at a Tulsa medical office, killing the surgeon and three other people before fatally shooting himself, police in the US said.

The gunman had a rifle and handgun opened fire in the building on Wednesday, the shooter died at the scene seemingly from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The shooting on Wednesday comes eight days after an 18-year-old gunman armed with an automatic rifle burst into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and killed 19 children and two teachers before being fatally shot himself.

The recent Memorial Day weekend saw multiple mass shootings nationwide, even as single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities.

But what happened, and how many people are injured, and who was the shooter, and was there also a bomb threat? Here’s what you need to know.

What happened in Tulsa?

Police received a call about the shooting at the Natalie Medical Building at the St Francis Hospital campus just before 4pm and arrived at the scene minutes later.

Tulsa Police Department deputy chief Eric Dalgleish confirmed the number of dead and said the gunman also was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police responded to the call three minutes after dispatchers received the report and made contact with the gunman one minute later, Mr Dalgleish said.

The victims and gunman in Tulsa were found on the second floor of a medical office where an orthopaedic clinic is located, police said.

Police captain Richard Meulenberg also said multiple people were wounded and that the medical complex was a “catastrophic scene”.

He told the New York Times that when officers arrived at the second floor entrance the gunfire stopped. Officers entered and immediately found a victim, and as they continued to search, they found the body of the gunman.

The CEO of St Francis Health System Dr Cliff Robertson described what happened as a “senseless” and “incomprehensible” act and praised the “incredible response” from the first responders called to the scene.

A reunification centre for families to find their loved ones was set up at a nearby high school.

Who was the shooter?

Tulsa police chief Wendell Franklin said the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain.

Mr Franklin said the doctor who performed the surgery, Dr Preston Phillips, was killed on Wednesday, along with another doctor, a receptionist and a patient.

“We also have a letter on the suspect, which made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr Phillips and anyone who got in his way,” Mr Franklin said. “He blamed Dr Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery.”

The name of the gunman has not been revealed yet.

However police said during a news conference he was between 35 and 40 years old.

Was there a bomb threat?

At around 8pm on Wednesday police investigated a bomb threat related to the shooting and were at the scene of an address on Park Place North in reference to a possible bomb inside potentially left there by the shooter.

News site tulsaworld.com reported Muskogee Police Department spokesman Lynn Hamlin said in a statement: “The Tulsa Police Department received information that the shooter at 61st and Yale may have left a bomb at this residence. At this time we have evacuated the house and have notified everyone in the area to stay inside their homes.

“OHP bomb squad is on scene and we are obtaining a search warrant to search the residence.”

According to reports they did not find an explosive device, but the address in still subject to investigation.

How many people were injured?

Captain Meulenberg told CNN multiple people were injured in the incident, but were not suffering from life-threatening injuries.

He told the broadcaster that they were trying to ascertain if they had been injured by gunfire or in the chaos of escaping the scene.

He said: “We’re still figuring it out as people scattered and were carted off very quickly to this hospital and other hospitals with injuries.”

Tulsa resident Nicholas O’Brien, whose mother was in a nearby building when the shooting occurred, told reporters that he rushed to the scene.

“They were rushing people out. I don’t know if some of them were injured or just have been injured during the shooting, but some of them couldn’t walk very well. But they were just kind of wobbling and stumbling and getting them out of there,” he said.

“I was pretty anxious. So once I got here and then I heard that she (his mother) was OK, the shooter had been shot and was down, I felt a lot better. It still is horrible what happened,” Mr O’Brien said.