An Indian-origin paediatrician who was suffering from terminal cancer had taken another doctor as captive and then later after several hours of a stand-off with the police, he killed his victim and then committed suicide.

On Wednesday, the local police said in a statement that Bharat Narumanchi grabbed several people hostage at a childrens clinic in Austin, Texas on Tuesday evening. However, except for a doctor the other people escaped or were allowed to let go. Hostage mediators tried to contact him and when it failed, a police SWAT team had to enter the building and found that he and Katherine Lindley Dodson, the doctor whom he held as hostage were dead from the apparent gunshot wounds.

The police said that it looked that Narumanchi shot himself after shooting Dr. Dodson. As per the hostages, Narumanchi visited the clinic one week ago in search of a volunteer position. According to police, mystery was surrounded over the episode as the Indian-origin doctor did not have any relation or other contacts with the victim whom he killed.

Police Lt. Jeff Greenwalt stated that they feel his terminal cancer possibly played a huge part in what occurred in his life. He had appealed to Narumanchis relatives and friends to provide any insights about his behaviour.

Narumanchi was armed with a pistol when he went to the clinic on Tuesday. Narumanchi, aged 43 years, studied medicine from the island of Grenada and had worked at an Army medical Centre, Hawaii. He was on the list of doctors at the two of the Santa Ana hospitals; however the details about him were removed. According to certain news reports, Narumanchi had a chequered background.

Narumanchi had divorced his wife and they were fighting a custody battle in court for their child. Katherine Dodson, aged 43, was the mother of three children.

Source: The Tribune