The man accused of setting fire to a Minnesota medical clinic on Tuesday is facing several charges, including murder, after the mass shooting – which according to police evidence he had previously threatened to fire at the clinic’s staff. feed.
Gregory Paul Ulrich, 67, is accused of shooting five people at the Allina Health Clinic in Buffalo, killing one and injuring four, as well as detonating two bombs. Officials said Ulrich went on a deadly rampage because he was “unhappy” with the treatment he received at the clinic.
He was charged Thursday with one count of second-degree murder, four counts of premeditated attempted murder, one of detonating an explosive device, and one of murdering a gun without a permit, according to court records.
The victim who was killed was identified by loved ones and local media as Lindsay Overbay, a medical assistant at the clinic. According to a GoFundMe who helps her family, Overbay was a 37-year-old mother of two.
“She was the bright light in so many people’s lives, she was able to illuminate a room with her infectious laugh,” says the GoFundMe. “Lindsay attended college classes to advance her career to make sure she could provide a better life for her two beautiful children.”
Her husband, Donnie Overbay, told the Star Tribune that his wife had recently obtained a nursing assistant and had applied for an ultrasound program because she was very interested in internal organs.
Donnie Overbay said he told their children, 5 and 8, that their mother was gone, but did not explain how she died and does not believe they still understand that they will not see her again.
“If it’s going to be a few weeks, I have to tell them, ‘She’s in heaven watching over you,'” he said.
Lindsay Overbay’s best friend of almost 20 years, Naiya Stubbe, said they could not see each other for months due to the pandemic, but that they kept in touch with daily Snapchats and sometimes even hour-long video chats.
“Her laugh was the best sound,” Stubbe said. “It was hard not to fall in love with her right away.”
This was not the shooter’s first shooting with law enforcement – or with the medical clinic and its staff, according to police reports that BuzzFeed News received.
A doctor in the clinic reportedly filed a restraining order against Ulrich in October 2018 after receiving several harassing calls in which Ulrich threatened to commit a mass shooting in the hospital and said he wanted it big and sensational , impact. “
Ulrich denied the police’s real intent, saying he was only describing a dream he had about ‘revenge on the people who’ tortured ‘him. He was angry about back surgeries he had in the clinic and which the police described as ‘medication problems after the surgeries’.
A month later, Ulrich was arrested for returning to the clinic. However, according to the Star Tribune, the charges were dismissed after he was mentally incompetent due to psychological problems and drug abuse.
Ulrich then returned to the clinic several times, terrified. One police report shows that Ulrich also called the nurse’s line and demanded that they supply him with drugs.
Wright County Sheriff Sean Deringer acknowledged Ulrich’s wide-ranging criminal history at a news conference Thursday and defended law enforcement action.
Deringer said that although police were aware of Ulrich’s many threats against the clinic, there had been ‘nothing in the past few months or even a year that we would have known of where we would act immediately to try to circumvent. or prevent what happened Tuesday morning. ‘
“If we’re going to carry the blame, I want to place the blame on Mr Ulrich who is responsible for the devastation that has happened in our Buffalo community,” Deringer said.