Copyright 2000 The Seattle Times Company
The
Seattle Times
June 29, 2000, Thursday Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 929 words
HEADLINE:
Two UW doctors killed in shooting
Young physician was about to lose his job,
university officials say
BYLINE: Charles E. Brown, Eli
Sanders, Christine Clarridge; Seattle Times staff reporter
BODY:
A top pathologist
at the University of Washington Medical Center was shot and killed in his
private office on campus yesterday afternoon by one of his residents, who had
been told he was about to be terminated, university officials said.
The
resident had earlier raised concern in the pathology department by talking of
buying a gun, officials said.
After shooting Dr. Rodger Haggitt, resident
physician Dr. Jian Chen apparently turned the gun on himself, university police
said.
Investigators are looking into reports that "there had been concern
about Dr. Chen possibly obtaining a gun and that that information had been given
to the UW's attorney generals and to the UW police," said university police
Capt. Randy Stegmeier.
Medical-center spokesman Walter Neary would not
comment on those reports last night.
Employees in the pathology department
heard gunfire shortly before 4 p.m. yesterday and called police, who found the
bodies of Haggitt, 57, and Chen, reported to be in his 30s, in Haggitt's office
on the second floor of the BB wing of the complex.
"When we entered the
office, it was apparent the subjects were deceased," Stegmeier said.
Stegmeier said employees working near Haggitt's office reported hearing loud
voices, then two or three shots fired about 3:45 p.m.
"Information we have
from witnesses and the crime scene is consistent with murder-suicide," Stegmeier
said during a news-media briefing less than two hours after the shooting.
He
said police recovered a handgun from the scene.
Seattle police homicide
detectives were called to help with the investigation.
A medical-center
spokesman said Chen had recently been told his contract would not be renewed.
Haggitt, director of anatomic pathology, was Chen's supervisor, the spokesman
said.
According to witnesses, Chen, who lived in the University District,
arrived at Haggitt's office for a scheduled appointment and locked the door
after entering.
Stegmeier said witnesses reported hearing one shot, "then a
few minutes later another shot or two were fired."
When police arrived,
officers cordoned off the room, Stegmeier said, then attempted to reach someone
by phone. When there was no response, police waited about 25 minutes, then
entered the office to find both men dead, he said.
Chen had been at the
University of Mississippi for two or three years before coming to the University
of Washington a year ago. Police said he was believed to be from Taiwan, with no
known relatives in the Seattle area.
The complex is part of the sprawling UW
Medical Center at the south end of campus. The building was not evacuated or
placed in lockdown, Stegmeier said.
Though Haggitt's office is in the
medical center, the shootings took place in a confined area near the east end,
away from patient-care areas, said Neary.
"The hospital remains a safe place
to be and patient care continues," Neary said.
Neary said counselors were
available for staff members.
Libby Sando, administrative manager for
graduate medical education at the medical
center, said there were 22 residents and six fellows in the pathology
department.
A residency in pathology lasts four or five years, depending on
the student's focus. And like many residencies, it can be stressful and
competitive, said Sando. People cracking or lashing out as a result of such
pressure is "always a concern in a stressful occupation," she said.
"It's a
tragedy," said Stegmeier. "Two highly educated men now gone."
Despite the
deaths, business went on as usual throughout the rest of the hospital. Just a
few feet from the police tape at the crime scene, people sat in the
radiology-department waiting room next to a large, bubbling fish tank.
"It's
a really sad thing to happen inside a hospital," said Karen Sanderlin, 63, from
Republic, Ferry County, who was visiting a patient in radiology. She entered the
building just after the shooting occurred. "Coming from the country, I could
smell the gunpowder," Sanderline said. "I could smell it, and it's sad to smell
it in the city."
William Maxwell, a staff member in the laboratory-medicine
department, said he was a bit shaken by the shootings.
"You wouldn't expect
it," he said. "Nobody is happy."
Eric Larson, medical director for the
hospital, said it was shocking to have such violence happen inside a space
devoted to healing.
"It feels like a violation of a safe space," he said.
In the past two decades, police have investigated at least three other
homicides on the UW campus.
In 1980, Roger Cutsinger, 21, was convicted of
fatally shooting his roommate and lover, Larry Duerkson, 29, on campus for a
$500,000 insurance policy in which he was the named
beneficiary.
In 1984, a 38-year-old man, who was not diabetic, died of an
insulin-induced coma at the medical center.
Police and medical examiners
said Robert Rux of West Seattle, who had been admitted to the intensive-care
unit with respiratory failure, was killed by an unnecessary insulin injection.
His death, which was ruled a homicide, was never solved.
In 1990, Azizolla
Mazooni, 25, of Iran was found guilty of shooting his 18-year-old ex-girlfriend,
Marjan Mohseninia, and a male friend of hers, Ebrahim Sharif-Kashani, on campus.
He told police he had hired a private detective to track down his ex-girlfriend
and then shot her and her friend in a jealous rage.
Seattle Times
staff reporter Christine Clarridge contributed to this report.
Charles E. Brown's phone message number is 206-464-2206. His e-mail address
is cbrown@seattletimes.com.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, MAP;
Alan Berner / The Seattle Times: Police tape blocks the hallway leading to Dr.
Rodger Haggitt's office at the UW Medical Center.
LOAD-DATE: June 30, 2000 
