Hospital Horror In Baltimore

"BALTIMORE, MD — A man suspected of shooting a Johns Hopkins Hospital doctor fatally shot himself and his mother, who was hospitalized, according to Baltimore police.

"The shooting and subsequent four-hour standoff was sparked by a conversation at about 11:10 a.m. between the shooting suspect — now identified as Paul Warren Pardus, 50, of Arlington — and Dr. David B. Cohen over the care of his mother. During the discussion, he became `overwhelmed by the news of his mother's condition,` said police commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, pulled a semi-automatic handgun from his waist, and shot the doctor in the abdomen.

"`He was last seen running into the room, brandishing the handgun in the direction of his mother, who was confined to the bed,` said Bealefeld.

"The suspect then barricaded himself in his mother's room on the eighth floor of the hospital's Nelson Building, located in the 600 block of Wolfe Street, according to police.

"At about 1:30 p.m., police noticed that the shooting suspect and his mother were `unresponsive` and entered the room to find both dead from gunshot wounds. Bealefeld said they are treating the incident as a murder-suicide."

From the L.A. Times...