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.