Witnesses describe shooting at New York's Bronx Lebanon Hospital
NEW YORK -- At least one person was killed and six others wounded after a gunman opened fire inside the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center on Friday afternoon, officials said.
Officials said the shooter was Dr. Henry Bello, a former employee at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. Bello was found dead at the scene.
As details emerged following the shooting hospital personnel and patients shared harrowing details of the shooting in the Bronx's Mount Hope neighborhood.
Gonzalo Carazo, who works at the the hospital, told CBS New York he smelled smoke and was told the hospital was on lockdown. He witnessed a doctor with a gunshot wound to the hand. "I didn't hear any gunshots, all I hear was the doctor saying 'Help, help," he said.
Carazo said he barricaded himself in a room for 15 minutes before police escorted him and others out of the building. "It was hot, and I was nervous," he said. "I saw blood on the stairs."
Phillip Zephamiah, who works in housekeeping at the hospital, said he was inside an operating room when emergency alarms went off. "Everybody were running here and running there for cover, trying to get in the room, lock themselves up," he told CBS New York.
A woman answering phones inside the hospital's pediatric unit told The New York Times she and others were still unable to evacuate the hospital. "We are just keeping safe. We are OK," she said. "All of us have to feel tense because of the situation."
Robert Maldonado, an EMT, said he was at the hospital to transport a patient when the shooting occurred. Maldonado told CBS New York he witnessed a victim who suffered a gunshot wound on the 9th floor of the building.
He and his partner applied pressure to the wound. Because the elevators weren't working, they carried the victim down nine flights of stairs to the trauma room on the first floor.
One of the hospital's patients told CBS New York that he was in his room when alarms went off throughout the building. "I was in my room looking at the TV and everybody said, 'Code red, Shut your doors. Don't come out your room.' We didn't know what was going on and we got scared."
Another patient, Felix Pun told the New York Daily News he was in the middle of getting an X-ray when security alerted him to the active shooter situation. "Police are here doing a floor-by-floor sweep," he said.
Another man said it was "scary seeing blood on the doctors hand and I'm just glad I got out safely. I hope everyone else gets out safely too."
Garry Trimble said his fiancée, who works as a patient aide, was still barricaded inside the hospital. "She was nervous, and I ran out here," he told CBS New York. "She's still scared. She didn't tell me nothing because I told her to get off the phone because I don't want her to talk too much, because they listen, and I don't want [the shooter] to break in the door."
"It's really sad that we have to go through this throughout our life, but we got to be strong. We got to keep on going."