A Tennessee surgeon was fatally shot by a patient in an exam room Tuesday afternoon in an act police described as a “targeted” attack.
Dr. Benjamin Mauck, who specialized in elbow and hand and wrist surgery, was killed at Campbell Clinic Orthopedics in Collierville, local Police Chief Dale Lane said in a news conference Tuesday.
Officers responded to reports of a shooting at the clinic around 2 p.m. local time and within five minutes found the suspect and took him into custody “without incident,” Lane said.
The suspect was not identified, but said to be a male. He was found with a handgun “on his person,” but it wasn’t in his hand.
Police conducted multiple searches of the facility to make sure it was secured.
“This appears to be a one-on-one interaction, it occurred in an exam room,” Lane said.
He said that the patient had been at the clinic for “several hours” but it’s not clear yet what precipitated the shooting.
Police said no one else was wounded in the incident.
The hospital said in a statement to NBC News: “We experienced a single shooter event inside our Collierville clinic.”
“We are shocked and heartbroken to confirm the incident resulted in the tragic loss of one of our highly respected and beloved physicians, Dr. Ben Mauck. We ask that you please lift his family in prayer,” said Irina Ollar, director of marketing and public relations at Campbell Clinic.
“We appreciate our local law enforcement officers who responded within minutes. We will continue to work closely with authorities as this remains an active investigation,” she added.
All Campbell Clinic locations are closed Wednesday.
Just last week, Mauck had been named one of the “2023 Top Doctors in Memphis” by Memphis Magazine.
He had worked at the Campbell Clinic since August 2012 and boasted a 4.9 rating in patient reviews. Mauck was also the director of the Congenital Hand Deformities Clinic Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Trey Eubanks, interim president and surgeon-in-chief at Le Bonheur, said in an email to staff Tuesday: “Ben was a friend to so many of us — a respected member of our Le Bonheur family, a beloved colleague and a dedicated physician to so many patients. We already miss him.”
“His death is an unthinkable tragedy, and I am at loss at what to say. I am so sorry to those who loved and knew him, for those who worked alongside him every day.”
The shooting came almost two years after the 2021 Kroger supermarket shooting in Collierville. In that tragedy, a third-party vendor shot 15 people, one fatally, after he was asked to leave his job.
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