The gunman who started shooting inside a Minnesota health clinic Tuesday was known to law enforcement and had a history of grievances with the health care system, police said.
Gregory Paul Ulrich, 67, has been named as the shooter who opened fire around 11 a.m. at the Allina Health Clinic in Buffalo, leaving one person dead and four others critically injured, according to local news reports.
“We are very familiar with the suspect,” Buffalo Police Chief Pat Budke told reporters.
Budke suggested that the shooting was likely a targeted attack against the facility or someone inside, citing Ulrich’s past conflicts 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 and with the health care that he’d received,” Budke said.
Despite the suspect’s known gripes against the healthcare system, there was “nothing to indicate that we would’ve been in the situation where we are at today,” Budke said.
Police responding to the clinic Tuesday came across a “horrible” scene, with several people injured and a possible explosive device that meant the building had to be evacuated.
“Upon arrival, we also located several victims, it’s a horrible looking scene and our staff immediately began rendering aid to those victims,” Wright County Sheriff Sean Derringer said.
Officers later discovered several suspicious devices at a nearby Super 8 motel where Ulrich was staying, although it was unclear whether they had been detonated, authorities said.
Ulrich was arrested shortly after the shooting.
Deringer said that Ulrich was “no stranger to law enforcement,” and had been known to the agency for almost two decades.
“We have had several calls for service regarding Mr. Ulrich dating back to 2003,” he said.
Ulrich’s rap sheet has arrests for drunken driving and possession of small amounts of marijuana between 2004 and 2014, including two convictions for gross misdemeanor drunken driving that led to jail time.