Former Yale Physician Killed In Tulsa Hospital Mass Shooting: Yale

NEW HAVEN, CT — The doctor that was allegedly targeted by the gunman who opened fire at a Tulsa, OK hospital, trained at Yale Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital in the 1990s, Yale confirmed.

Preston Phillips, MD, was a resident in the orthopedic surgery residency training program at Yale New Haven Hospital from 1990 to 1996, Yale Medicine tweeted.

The Washington Post reported that Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said Phillips "performed back surgery on the gunman last month and was the primary target of the shooting."

The 59-year-old surgeon was found dead in a second-floor exam room, it's reported.

Phillips and Dr. Stephanie Husen, a hospital receptionist and a former soldier taking his wife to a medical appointment, were killed in the mass shooting inside a Saint Francis Health System medical building, it was reported.

In a tweet, Yale New Haven Health and Yale Medicine wrote about Phillips following the "recent and tragic gun violence in Tulsa."

"On behalf of the entire Yale New Haven Health and Yale school of medicine family, we offer our deepest sympathies to the Saint Francis health system family over the horrific loss of Preston Phillips, MD and his colleagues," Yale wrote.

According to the Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa, Phillips was a board-certified orthopedic surgeon with an interest in spinal surgery, joint reconstruction, including joint replacement and the treatment of fractures.

ESPN reported that Phillips was a Tulsa Shock WNBA team physician, starting in 2010 while lead physician of the Warren Clinic. The Tulsa Shock WNBA franchise moved to Dallas in 2016, ESPN reported.

Phillips graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1990 and completed his fellowship at the university-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He joined Yale that same year.

In its message to the Yale New Haven Hospital community, Yale Medicine wrote:

"As an academic health institution and as physicians, we must recommit ourselves to finding a better path forward by bolstering support for behavioral health services as we do everything in our power to illuminate the scorch of gun violence in our communities."