The emergency room doctor who was shot Wednesday night at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center says he saw a man in a wheelchair with a gun and knew he had to act.
So Dr. Bruce Goldfeder scuffled with him — and got shot in the back of the neck in the process.
“I saw the gun, and you know, I saw that it was being pointed and waved in different directions and I heard gunshots, so you know I ran towards him,” Goldfeder said Thursday.
“He was waving the gun, and so I kind of did like a football tackle. I tackled him and the gun at the same time and restrained the gun, and then I got shot when it hit the floor,” he said.
VA hospital shooter was Army veteran receiving mental health treatment, FBI says »
Goldfeder says the gunman was a double amputee in a wheelchair, who the FBI later identified as 59-year-old Larry Ray Bon, a homeless veteran from West Palm Beach.
The FBI says Bon spent a short time in the U.S. Army in the Seventies.
“I just immobilized his wrist so he couldn’t move it anymore and we were grappling,” Goldfeder said. “Finally, I got him to release the gun, and then I took the gun. I think any physician would’ve done the same thing. I was on top of him like a wrestler.”
He says police got there quickly; it was over in 30 to 40 seconds.
Asked how terrifying the experience was, Goldfeder said: “It wasn’t. I saw a gun. I just plunged. There wasn’t much thinking; it was a reaction.”
The FBI has called Goldfeder a hero, saying his actions to subdue the gunman saved lives.
But Goldfeder doesn’t want the credit.
“I think the heroes are the veterans and I think we need to allocate more for their well-being,” he said.
Goldfeder says we need to provide more mental health experts, more psychiatrists and psychologists to treat veterans. He says there’s a critical shortage of psychiatrists at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center.
As for Goldfeder, he says he got a minor injury to his ear, and an entrance and exit wound in the back of his skull from being shot.
But he says he’ll be OK.
“I’m lucky, I’m blessed. It’s a good day for me. I’m fine. If it were another inch lower maybe we’d be, it’d be a different day,” Goldfeder said.
WPEC-Ch.12 is a news partner of the South Florida Sun Sentinel