A federal judge is allowing a lawsuit filed🍎 by a survivor of the deadly 2017 gun rampage ღat a Bronx hospital to move forward — but has tossed out the survivor’s claims against the upstate gun store where the shooter legally purchased his weapon.
Justin Timperio was a first-year medical student when Dr. Henry Bello, who resigned from Bronx Lebanon Hospital amid sexual harassment allegations, burst into the medical center on June 30, 2017 armed with an AR-15, killing one and injuring six — including Timperio, who took a bullet to the gut.
Timperio sued the hospital, alleging that Bronx Lebanon’s security was to blame for Bello’s bloodbath as well as Guns and Ammo of upstate Schenectady, alleging that the store did not conduct a thor🐬ough background check when the troubled doctor purchased his weapon and failed to verify that he had a permit to carry a gun in New York City.
Timperio’s lawsuit provides a chilling account of the shooting: Bello entered the hospital in 90-degree weather wearing a hooded sweatshirt and lab coat, which he used to conceal the AR-15, and using his old ID badge for the hospital.
That is when “the s—t hit the fan,” Timperio said in his suit. Bello went to the hospital’s 16th floor and sꦓtarted firing at medical students, including Timperio, who took a slug to the abdomen.
“Oh my God, I’ve been shot,” Timperio cried out to ♔Bello, who was still pointing 𝄹his firearm at him.
“That’s right,” Bello replied, according to the suit, maintaining eye contact wi🎀th the wounded Timperio the whole time.
Bello heightened tꦑhe carnage by dousing a nurse’s statio▨n with gasoline and setting it aflame. The rampage ended about an hour later after Bello shot himself.
As Timperio notes in his suit, the 2017 incident was not the first time that Bronx Lebanon was terrorized with gun violence — in 2011, a gang banger opened fire in the hospital’s emergency room, wounding two.
District Judge Paul Gar📖dephe of the Manhattan federal court said that Timperio should be able to seek damages from the hospital because he did not get shot because of his employment, and thus he cannot receive workers’ compensation.
But with respect to the gun store, Gardephe said that federal law provides bro🐷ad protections for gun sellers fromജ lawsuits filed in federal and state courts.
A spokesman for Timperio said that the plaintiff might appeal Gardephe’s ruling to let Upstate off the hook in the suit♋.
An attorney for the gun store did not immediately 🐲respond to requests for comment and a spokesperson for ꦅthe hospital declined to comment, citing a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.