Hospital shooter thought he'd been bugged, cops say

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A mentally ill gunman who killed a hospital worker and wounded two others was upset with a doctor he thought had implanted a monitoring device during an appendectomy in 2001, police said yesterday.

Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said gunman Abdo Ibssa first entered a medical tower near Parkwest Medical Center and asked for the doctor who performed the appendectomy. After being told the doctor wasn't there, Ibssa went to another area where patients are discharged and opened fire with a revolver.

He killed himself after shooting the three women who work at the hospital on Monday, a day before his 39th birthday.

"There was less than 5 seconds from the time of the first shot until the last shot," Owen said at a news conference.

Investigators found a note at Ibssa's Knoxville apartment in which the gunman said the doctor had implanted a chip that was being used to track his movements, Owen said.

Haloperidol, an antipsychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia and Tourette syndrome, was also found at his apartment, but investigators believe he hadn't been using it, Owen said.

Owen said relatives of Ibssa, a naturalized citizen from Ethiopia, had him committed for mental treatment in February.

Also found during the search were a second handgun, a bag of marijuana and a copy of the book "The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception" - a reproduction of a Cold War-era CIA handbook on the use of illusion and deception for acts of espionage.

The gun used in the shooting had been reported stolen in March, while other one had an altered serial number but wasn't reported stolen. Police were not sure how Ibssa obtained either gun and said he did not have a handgun permit.

Police said Ibssa operated a convenience store near downtown Knoxville.

Owen said Ibssa fired four shots at people exiting the building, hitting the three hospital workers. The gunman killed himself with a fifth shot. Police said it doesn't appear that he knew the women.

The woman killed was Rachel Wattenbarger, 40. Her father, Ray Wattenbarger, said she had worked at the hospital for about five or six years, helping discharge the elderly. He said he would remember his daughter's smile.