FBI: VA hospital shooter was vet

Army veteran was receiving mental health treatment

A man who fired a handgun six times inside a veterans hospital in Riviera Beach was disarmed by a doctor who was wounded in the gunfire while another physician and a patient cornered the shooter until police arrived.

Larry Ray Bon, 59, a U.S. Army veteran and double amputee, was at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center at 7305 North Military Trail on Wednesday night, screaming about cigarettes, according to the FBI.

The amputation of Bon’s legs was not related to his brief military service in the 1970s, the FBI said.

Earlier in the day Wednesday, Bon was admitted to the hospital for treatment under Florida’s Baker Act. The law allows a person to be briefly, involuntarily hospitalized if he is considered mentally unstable or a danger to himself or others.

At about 6:30 p.m., the two doctors were working at emergency room desks when a colleague screamed that someone had a gun, and three shots were fired.

A doctor the FBI identified as B.G. alerted everyone in the emergency room that they were in an active-shooter situation.

The doctor’s name wasn’t released by authorities. He saw Bon on a scooter. To distract Bon, the doctor told him there were cigarettes behind him and he rushed to take the gun away.

As the doctor and Bon struggled over the weapon, Bon fired about three more shots.

One bullet grazed the doctor’s left ear, entered his neck and exited near the base of his skull, a federal affidavit said.

Despite his injury, the doctor managed to wrestle the gun free and hand it to another physician, a woman who the FBI identified as E.A.

She was backed against a wall as Bon, who had apparently fallen off of his scooter, crawled toward her.

The physician held the gun up out of his reach and shielded herself with a chair.

To keep the gun from Bon, she threw it back to the wounded doctor and when it fell to the floor, he gave it to a nurse.

Bon tried to attack the physician and a patient came to her aid. They used a chair to pin Bon against a wall until police arrived and took him into custody, according to the affidavit.

Investigators later found a second hospital employee was wounded by the gunfire, struck in the buttocks.

While speaking with reporters Wednesday night, Justin Fleck, the assistant special agent in charge in Miami, called the wounded doctor’s actions “heroic.”

The wounded doctor underwent surgery at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

Veterans Affairs spokeswoman Mary Kay Rutan released a statement Thursday afternoon that said, “The injured employee has been released from the hospital and is doing well. We thank him for his efforts to subdue the suspect.”

Rutan said the facility “continuously conducts safety training and exercises to help ensure appropriate responses to active threat situations, and that training was put to great use yesterday.”

Federal law mostly prohibits guns in federal facilities, Rutan said.

She cited a statute that makes an exception for members of the military and law enforcement who may be on official duty or who are authorized to have weapons inside those buildings.

The VA was not releasing the injured doctor’s name because of privacy concerns, she said.

Veterans hospitals are not immune from gun violence: A scan of headlines shows at least six instances in the past four years when armed men tried to hurt themselves or others at hospitals in California, Texas, Ohio, Tennessee and Arizona.

The FBI could not say how many shootings have happened at veterans facilities.

Bon was found to be indigent during a court appearance Thursday.

He is facing a federal charge of assaulting certain officers or employees with a deadly or dangerous weapon. If convicted, he could face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine.

Bon’s detention hearing, when bond may be discussed, is scheduled for March 7.