On what should have been a routine Friday afternoon, Tracy Sin-Yee Tam, a dedicated 32-year-old female physician, found her life tragically cut short. On June 30, 2017, a former colleague, Henry Bello, returned to the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center with a hidden AM-15 assault rifle and a heart full of vengeance. Dr. Tam, who normally worked in one of the hospital's satellite clinics, was covering a shift for another doctor on the 17th floor, a simple act of kindness that placed her in the path
of unforeseen danger.
The hospital, a place of healing, was transformed into a scene of terror when Bello, a family medicine physician who had been forced to resign two years prior amid allegations of sexual harassment, began his deadly rampage. He had reportedly intended to target a specific doctor who had been involved in his dismissal, but that individual was not present. Instead, Bello indiscriminately opened fire on those he encountered, shouting, 'why didn't you help me out when I was getting in trouble?' Six other people were wounded in the attack before Bello turned the gun on himself.
In the chaotic aftermath, as police and emergency services swarmed the building, Dr. Tam was found deceased. She was the sole fatality in the tragic shooting. The gunman, Dr. Henry Bello, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, after attempting to set himself on fire. Because the perpetrator took his own life at the scene, there were no arrests or subsequent trial. The incident was ruled a murder-suicide. The community and her colleagues mourned the loss of a compassionate and well-liked doctor whose career was just beginning.
