Pa. man due in court in hospital complex shooting
A Philadelphia-area man accused of fatally shooting his caseworker and grazing his psychiatrist before the doctor returned fire is due in court for a hearing.
The charges against 49-year-old Richard Plotts include murder, reckless endangerment and weapons counts.
Plotts is charged in the July shooting death of 53-year-old Theresa Hunt inside a psychiatrist’s office at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital.
Authorities say psychiatrist Lee Silverman crouched behind a chair, pulled out his own gun and fired several times, wounding Plotts.
Silverman was grazed in the temple and thumb.
Authorities say Plotts had several prior mental-health commitments, as well as prior drug and gun arrests.
Investigators believe he was upset about signs at the hospital complex that banned guns on the suburban Philadelphia campus.
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