SWAT team members are trucked from near the Renown helicopter pad to the Renown Medical Center where a lone gunman shot and injured four people before killing himself at a sprawling medical campus Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013 in Reno, Nev. (AP Photo/The Reno Gazette-Journal, Tim Dunn) NO SALES; NEVADA APPEAL OUT; SOUTH RENO WEEKLY OUT
RENO — A suspect in a deadly hospital shooting in Reno left a suicide note at his home and claimed he had botched surgery three years ago before killing a doctor and himself this week, police said Thursday.
Police didn’t outline a motive, but the new details could give a fuller picture of why the urology clinic was targeted and two other people were wounded.
Police also confirmed that the shooter was 51-year-old Alan Oliver Frazier of Plumas County, Calif. Police searched his home on Wednesday.
“Inside, we located a typed letter indicating the suspect’s intention to commit this horrific act,” said Reno police Lt. William Rulla. “We also located other firearms within the residence, as well as notes indicating the suspect’s actions during this incident were to be his final actions.”
Police said Frazier had a surgery in 2010 and claimed to have adverse symptoms because of it.
But it was not immediately clear if the unspecified procedure was performed at Urology Nevada, the site of the shooting on Tuesday, or if either of the two doctors who were shot had been involved in the operation.
However, police said Frazier made statements at the time of the attack that he was looking for physicians from the office, not patients, police said, citing witness statements.
Detectives were in the process of securing Frazier’s medical records to determine the nature of his surgery and other details.
There were about 100 people in the office building when authorities were alerted about the shooter.
Plumas County Sheriff Greg Hagwood said his agency helped Reno police execute a search warrant Wednesday at Frazier’s California home near Lake Almanor, about 130 miles north of Reno.
Hagwood said the man lived alone and had no significant run-ins with the law during his two decades in the community.
Frazier’s former fiancee, Stephanie Wright-West, told The Associated Press that Frazier took medication for depression when they were together in the mid-1990s.
Authorities said Frazier used a 12-gauge shotgun in the attack and was also carrying a Derringer pistol and a fully loaded .40-caliber handgun, neither of which police believe he shot.
Police identified the slain doctor as Charles G. Gholdoian, 46, a urologist at Urology Nevada. His colleague, Dr. Christine Lajeunesse, was conscious Thursday and remained in critical condition at Renown.
Lajeunesse and Shawntae Spears, 20, who was accompanying a family member on a doctor visit, each were shot once. Spears’ condition has improved from critical to serious, the hospital said.