Beloved pediatrician slain in hostage standoff
Another doctor entered the Austin practice around closing time and held several workers at gunpoint before killing the mother of 3
AUSTIN — A hostage standoff in Central Austin resulted in the fatal shooting of a beloved pediatrician who was at work Tuesday when another doctor entered the office around closing time and held her hostage before killing them both.
On Wednesday morning, Austin Police announced Dr. Katherine Lindley Dodson was killed after she and other employees in the office were held captive by Dr. Bharat Narumanchi.
The shooting happened at Children’s Medical Group, near the intersection of 35th Street and Jackson Avenue just east of MoPac Boulevard. Officers arrived there around 4:30 p.m. after a caller reported that a male subject had entered the business with a gun and had hostages inside.
By the time officers arrived, four hostages had escaped or were allowed to leave with the exception of Dodson, police say.
Police said hostages who escaped the building identified Narumanchi as the intruder, connecting him to Dodson through a visit Narumanchi made to the office a week prior to apply for a volunteer position. Narumanchi, who was turned down for the job, was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given weeks to live, police said. Online employment records show he is a pediatrician who primarily practiced in California.
A woman who answered a phone Wednesday at a Santa Ana, Calif., medical office where Narumanchi practiced declined to comment.
In addition to a pistol and what appeared to be a shotgun, witnesses told police Narumanchi entered the office with two duffel bags. He forced hostages to tie themselves up, police said.
SWAT negotiators arrived on scene and attempted to make contact with Narumanchi, but did not get a response. Hours into the standoff, they could be heard calling out on a bullhorn urging him to respond to calls or texts.
“Your life is very important to me,” a SWAT team member said. “And I know life is very important to you.”
After failing to connect with the people inside the building, the Austin Police Department had a robot unit go in and identified two victims, officials said. SWAT officers then entered the building at around 10:45 p.m. and found both Dodson and Narumanchi dead from apparent gunshot wounds.
The case is still under investigation, police said. The investigation is focused on Narumanchi’s behavior in the days leading up to the shooting. The Travis County Medical Examiner will be conducting an autopsy to determine the official cause and manner of death.
Dodson, 43, was a board certified pediatrician who has practiced for several years in Austin. In 2019, she was named by Super Doctors as one of the state’s top pediatricians, an honor Dodson received again in 2020. She earned her medical degree at Louisiana State University after attending undergraduate at Washington and Lee University and completed her residency at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Dodson leaves behind a husband and three children.
Narumanchi completed his pediatric residency training at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2012, Narumanchi was charged with domestic abuse in Hawaii, and the case was later dismissed, court records show.
Court records also detail a contentious child custody battle between Narumanchi and his exwife.
In one court filing, Narumanchi comes across as angry and frustrated in seeking to gain full custody of his children. He described his ex-wife as “a hapless person” who “decided to marry me, a born U.S. citizen and thus gain what she coveted and dreamt of — the U.S. citizenship that eluded her when she lived in the U.S. as a student.”
Narumanchi, who represented himself in the legal proceeding, continued, “Now, for God’s sake, why and how is it that (she) would bite and hit the family that is instrumental in getting her the U.S. citizenship?”