For First Time, ER Doctor Recounts Early Moments In Charles Stuart Shooting

BOSTON (CBS) - More than twenty years ago Boston was rocked by the story of Charles Stuart, who claimed a black man had shot him and his pregnant wife.

It was actually Stuart who did the shooting.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports

For the first time we're hearing from a person who treated Stuart that night - October 23, 1989.

Stuart and his pregnant wife Carol Dimaiti Stuart were shot in Mission Hill after attending a childbirth class.

Maggie Harling was working in the emergency room not far away at what was then Boston City Hospital.

"I was in training as an ER resident at Boston City Hospital and I was in the emergency room on the night that Charles Stuart was brought in."

Maggie, who later became a doctor, was a procedure person on the trauma team.

"He was brought into the trauma room and we did what we always do, which is cut all his clothes off and examine him for injury. He was an unusual person to see in the emergency room, this big, strong, healthy man."

"We all heard him asking 'How's my wife? How's my wife? Please, please how's my wife? Find out how my wife is.'"

She saw the wound in Charles Stuart's side and when we all learned later that Stuart had shot himself it was pretty hard for Maggie to believe it.

"I always had trouble believing that because it was on the flank, his flank, which, to me, would have been very difficult to turn his arm around and apply it to his flank. I always believe that somebody else shot him."

It was Stuart's brother Matthew, who died last year in a Cambridge homeless shelter, who got rid of the gun that night and later told police his brother had shot himself and his wife. A short time after that Charles Stuart jumped off the Tobin Bridge.

"Everybody in the trauma room that night was absolutely amazed by what happened," Harling said.

You can follow Carl on Twitter @carlwbz.