A man who became distraught as he was being briefed on his mother’s condition at Johns Hopkins Hospital pulled a gun and shot the doctor Thursday, then killed his mother and himself in her room at the world-famous medical center, police said.
Baltimore police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said the doctor had been talking to the 50-year-old man just after 11 a.m. when he “became emotionally distraught and reacted … and was overwhelmed by the news of his mother’s condition.” The man was initially identified as Warren Davis, but police later said that was an alias. His real name was Paul Warren Pardus of Arlington, Va.
Bealefeld said he did not know what the woman was being treated for at the world-class facility, known for its cancer research and treatment.
Pardus then pulled a semiautomatic handgun from his waistband shot the doctor once in the abdomen, the commissioner said. The doctor collapsed outside room 873 of the Nelson building, where Pardus’ mother, Jean Davis, was being treated. Pardus then holed up inside his mother’s room for more than two hours during a standoff with authorities.
When officers made their way to the eighth-floor room, they found Pardus dead on the floor and his mother dead in her hospital bed.
Two Hopkins employees said the physician who was wounded is Dr. David B. Cohen, an assistant professor and orthopedic surgeon. The employees asked to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to discuss the matter. Police said the doctor underwent surgery and was expected to survive.
Michelle Burrell, who works in a coffee shop in the hospital lobby, said she was told by employees who were on the floor where the doctor was shot that the gunman was angry with the doctor’s treatment of his mother.
“It’s crazy,” she said.
Hannah Murtaugh, 25, a first-year nursing student at the facility’s nursing school, said her physiology class was put on lockdown. She said a classmate received a security alert text message from the school saying a gunman was on the Nelson building’s eighth floor.
Her professor interrupted the lecture to let students know about the situation.
“They just kept telling us to stay away from the windows. We think there was a sniper located below our classroom,” Murtaugh said.
“I was scared — wondering if any of my friends or other students who had clinicals that day were on that floor, hoping the situation would be contained, trying to see what was going on while staying away from the windows.”
She said security personnel helped keep everyone calm, making sure doors were locked and reviewing what could be done if the gunman was on the loose.
A small area of the hospital had been locked down before the gunman died, as about a dozen officers wearing vests and helmets and carrying assault weapons prepared to go into the hospital at midday.
The Nelson building is the main hospital tower. According to the Hopkins website, the eighth floor is home to orthopedic, spine, trauma and thoracic services.
The rest of the massive hospital, research and medical education complex remained open, including the emergency department.
With more than 30,000 employees, Johns Hopkins Medicine is among Maryland’s largest private employers and the largest in Baltimore. The hospital has more than 1,000 beds and more than 1,700 full-time doctors.
