Two Doctors Die In Murder-Suicide In Central Austin

AUSTIN, TX – An hours-long standoff resulted in a murder-suicide involving two doctors in central Austin.

According to the Abilene Police Department, around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dr. Bharat Narumanchi entered the Dell Children's Medical Group building.

The 43-year-old doctor appeared to have a pistol, shotgun, and two duffel bags. He then proceeded to take hostages. The hostages included 43-year-old Dr. Katherine Lindley Dodson, a pediatrician.

The hostages who were able to escape told police Dr. Narumanchi was also a pediatrician and had applied to work as a volunteer at the clinic last week.

The motive for Narumanchi's actions is still unknown, but police believe his recent terminal cancer diagnosis influenced his actions.

"The suspect, Dr. Narumanchi, had terminal cancer and was given only weeks to live. We feel like his terminal cancer probably played a large part in whatever it was in his life that was happening yesterday," said APD Lt. Jeff Greenwalt."The family was entertaining the hospice care step and that process. As far as suspicious behavior, that’s what we want to know. A lot of times, suspicious behavior is not so suspicious when it’s happening because you’re not thinking about that, but when you look backwards with 20/20 hindsight knowing what happened, little things that weren’t suspicious at the time mean more."

Hostage negotiators spent hours attempting to make contact with Dr. Narumanchi but were unsuccessful.

After several attempts, the SWAT team made entry into the building using a robot with a camera.

They initially located one unresponsive subject. As SWAT officers made entry, they located Dr. Dodson and Dr. Narumanchi. Both doctors were deceased from what appeared to be gunshot wounds.

The preliminary investigation indicates Dr. Narumanchi shot himself after shooting Dr. Dodson. 

According to police, the doctors had only met once and had no previous contact or relationship.

According to Dell Children's Medical Center website, Dr. Dodson went to middle school at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. She completed her pediatric residency at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

Dodson then spent more than 10 years at Dell Children's. In 2017 she left to open her private practice but remained on the medical staff.

Dr. Narumanchi worked in California as a general pediatrician and completed his pediatric residency training at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

"We don’t know exactly why he decided to take these actions and target this particular business. We’re asking if anyone is friends with either Dr. Dodson or Dr. Narumanchi and knows why he wanted to come to this particular business, or knows what may have been going on in his life or thought process, please call out to the Austin Police Department tip line and let us know," said Greenwalt. "For all intents and purposes, the case - as far as who did this - is closed. We know who did it and we know there’s no longer a threat to the public, but we really really want to answer the question of why, and provide as many facts and circumstances to the family, friends as we can, and provide as much closure in this tragic situation as we can."

Narumanchi's family is asking close friends to help the police as they investigate this matter.

"We, the parents of Dr. Bharat Kumar Narumanchi, wish to extend our most sincere condolences and most fervent prayers to the family, friends, and colleagues of Dr. Lindley Dodson. We share your grief for a life so senselessly cut short. We don’t understand our son’s motives or actions but feel this time is best spent remembering Dr. Dodson and her contributions to this world. We are cooperating with the investigators as they seek to make sense of this tragedy. The consequences of this action will live with us forever and we can only hope that faith, spiritual healing, and God’s light will guide us through the darkness of this moment."