'You could smell gunfire,' fleeing worker told pals
John Shick didn't talk. He fired guns.
Police said Shick, 30, of Oakland walked into the lobby of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Oakland at 1:42 p.m. Thursday wearing a tan trench coat, two fanny packs with unidentified pills, and watches on his wrists. He carried two semiautomatic handguns.
He shot receptionist Kathryn F. Leight, 64, of Shaler in the chest while she talked to her husband on the phone. He shot therapist Michael Schaab, 25, in the chest, killing him. He shot four others, scarring walls with bullet holes, police said on Friday when they provided details about the rampage.
Shick died in a shootout with police. Leight remains hospitalized in serious condition. Authorities did not identify the other victims but said all should survive. Two University of Pittsburgh police officers were also injured.
Lenny Simon, 59, of Squirrel Hill and Mike Brudnak, 57, of Monessen, attendants at O'Hara Garage next door to the hospital's main entrance, said the rainy but calm day shifted to chaos.
Two university police cars sped past the glass front of the garage and screeched to a stop.
"They jumped out of their cars with their guns in the air," Simon said. "They ran real quick up the stairs. You knew something was wrong because they were flying."
More police arrived, ordering bystanders to take cover as they ran past. Inside, Shick moved through the lobby and into a stairwell.
"It appears the suspect may have tried to exit one of those doors (to the garage) but did not have a pass card to get out," Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said.
Shick "fired at a door to escape" but could not get out, Pitt police Chief Tim Delaney said.
The gunman began checking office doors, possibly searching for people, police said. Some people ran for cover. Others hid.
Shick fired at Pitt police officers who came through the doors. They shot him, police said.
Moments later, an injured officer stumbled outside, Simon and Brudnak said. Other officers rushed him to UPMC Presbyterian next door.
Police said Shick died face-down in a hallway off the lobby within a foot of Schaab's body. Officers stepped over the gunman's body and began checking each floor for other victims or shooters. They found frightened employees crouching under desks or in corners.
Several UPMC workers huddled in a hospital lobby across the street, said an employee who would not give his name.
"I heard two gunshots and then a bunch," he said. Staff members "thought it might be a terrorist attack."
Carpenters Craig Corey, 31, of West Mifflin and Craig Brain, 36, of Baldwin were working at Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center, two buildings away. They met a fleeing friend who was on the hospital's loading dock when shots rang out.
"He said you could smell the gunfire," Brain said.
Acting on reports of a possible second gunman, police herded people into the garage lobby.
"The cop said, 'Don't do anything, don't go anywhere, don't even move, because we don't know where the second shooter is,'" Brudnak said.
Three construction workers, two Western Psych maintenance workers, a man in white scrubs and a woman whom police ordered out of her car when she tried to exit the garage waited, Brudnak and Simon said.
Moments later -- about 10 minutes after the first car arrived -- an officer ordered them to "get out, stay down, stay close to the building and run," Simon said.
They filed out. Three officers with long guns pointed at windows above ran alongside them until they were safe.
Additional Information:
Other rampages
There have been other gun rampages in Western Pennsylvania in recent years. Among them:
Aug. 4, 2009: George Sodini, 48, of Scott walked into an LA Fitness center in Collier and opened fire on an aerobics class, killing three women and wounding nine others, including a pregnant woman, before taking his life. Prior to the rampage, Sodini described on a personal website his social anxieties, particularly with women, and his plans to conduct a public shooting.
April 4, 2009: Richard Poplawski confronted two Pittsburgh police officers responding to a domestic disturbance at his mother's Stanton Heights home with an assault rifle. Poplawski, then 22, fatally shot them and a third officer and wounded two more during a standoff. A jury convicted Poplawski of 28 charges, including three counts of first-degree murder, and sent him to death row.
April 8, 2000: Richard Baumhammers, 34, a former immigration lawyer from Mt. Lebanon, embarked on a shooting rampage from his neighborhood to Aliquippa that left six dead. Baumhammers, a white man, targeted ethnic minorities. His two-hour killing spree included destruction at two synagogues, an Indian grocery story, a Chinese restaurant and a karate school. He is on death row.
March 1, 2000: Ronald Taylor, 39, killed three people and injured two others during a racially motivated shooting spree in the Wilkinsburg business district. Taylor, who is black, began by fatally shooting a white carpenter repairing Taylor's apartment door. He went on to kill a retired priest sitting in a Burger King restaurant and a college student at a McDonald's drive-thru. Taylor is on death row.
