Houston Chronicle

1 killed in attack on clinic in Minn.

- By Mohamed Ibrahim and Gretchen Ehlke

BUFFALO, Minn. — A 67-yearold man unhappy with the health care he’d received opened fire at a clinic Tuesday, killing one person and wounding four others, and bomb technician­s were investigat­ing a suspicious device left there and others at a motel where he was staying, authoritie­s said.

All five victims were rushed to the hospital, and a hospital spokeswoma­n confirmed the one death Tuesday night. Three remained in stable but critical condition and a fourth had been discharged.

The attack happened Tuesday morning at an Allina clinic in Buffalo, a community of about 15,000 people roughly 40 miles northwest of Minneapoli­s. Authoritie­s said Gregory Paul Ulrich, of Buffalo, opened fire at the facility and was arrested before noon.

Though police said it was too early to tell if Ulrich had targeted a specific doctor, court records show he at one point had been ordered to have no contact with a man whose name matches that of a doctor at the clinic.

As authoritie­s searched the clinic for more victims, they found the suspicious device and evacuated the building, Wright County Sheriff Sean Deringer said.

It was not immediatel­y clear whether that device exploded, but TV footage showed several shattered plate-glass windows at the clinic. Deringer said suspicious devices were also found at a local Super 8 motel where Ulrich had been staying, and there were at least two shattered windows there as well.

Police Chief Pat Budke became emotional and had to pause during a news conference as he told reporters “our heart breaks as a community.” While an exact motive wasn’t immediatel­y known, Budke said Ulrich has had a long history of conflict with health care clinics in the area.

“All I can say is, it’s a history that spans several years and there’s certainly a history of him being unhappy with health care … with the health care that he’d received,” Budke said.

Deringer said Ulrich was well known to law enforcemen­t before the attack, and there were calls for service dating back to 2003.

Court records for Ulrich list a handful of arrests and conviction­s for drunken driving and possession of small amounts of marijuana from 2004 through 2015, mostly in Wright County. A 2018 charge of violating a harassment restrainin­g order was dismissed last April when the prosecutor said Ulrich was “found mentally incompeten­t to proceed.”

An order issued in 2018 and 2019 in the harassment case showed Ulrich was to have no contact with a man. The order didn’t identify that man beyond giving his name, but the name appeared to match that of a doctor listed on the clinic’s staff list.

Hours after the attack, law enforcemen­t cordoned off a small mobile home park about a mile from the clinic, and searched a home where Ulrich had lived. Several neighbors who declined to give their names described Ulrich as argumentat­ive and said they tried to avoid him.

 ?? David Joles / Associated Press ?? A law enforcemen­t official walks past a broken window outside of the Allina Health clinic on Tuesday in Buffalo, Minn. Authoritie­s say five people were shot at the clinic, and one died.
David Joles / Associated Press A law enforcemen­t official walks past a broken window outside of the Allina Health clinic on Tuesday in Buffalo, Minn. Authoritie­s say five people were shot at the clinic, and one died.

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