Three Shot Outside Texas Hospital
K I N G W O O D, Texas, Aug. 6, 2000 -- A man fatally shot his wife and anotherman in a hospital courtyard before committing suicide Saturday afternoon, police said.
The slayings happened outside Kingwood Medical Center’semergency room about 1 p.m., said Houston Police Departmentspokeswoman Sylvia Trevino. No one else was injured in theshootings.
Kingwood is a suburb north of Houston.
“It was really scary,” said Marge Schwartz, who was visitingher sister inside the hospital when the shots rang out. “I neverdreamt that it was gunshots, I just heard this popping noise.”
Identities Not Released
The man shot his wife and another man numerous times with ahigh-calibre revolver before turning the gun on himself, saidTrevino. The identities of the three were not released.
Hospital officials said the shooting happened inside a woodengazebo standing near the emergency room entrance. None of thedeceased were employees or patients.
Chuck Schuetz, a hospital executive, said immediately after theincident, several staff members worked to save more than one of thethree victims.
“We did our best to resuscitate them, but 90 minutes later theywere dead,” Schuetz said.
Possible Love Triangle
Hours later, police had cordoned off the area around the gazebo,which stood in a grassy courtyard near the entrance to theemergency room. A crying hospital worker could be seen standingnear another entryway, along with a colleague who appeared to beconsoling the woman.
The motive for the shooting was not immediately known, butTrevino said it may have been caused by marital discord.
“It appears it’s is going to be a love triangle situation,”Trevino said of the incident. “The shooter believed he found hiswife with another man.”
Paul Barnes, who arrived at the scene after the shooting, butsaw the police cars and a crowd of onlookers, said he was surprisedviolence had erupted at Kingwood’s hospital—normally a quietplace.
“It’s very upsetting when a family does this at a hospital,”said Barnes, who was visiting a patient.