Tulsa gunman's ex-wife in 911 call: "He said, 'I just killed several people'"
- At the time of Edith Lubin’s 911 call, Michael Louis was already dead, according to a police timeline of the nation's latest high-profile mass shooting.
- "He sounds hysterical," Lubin told a Cherokee County sheriff's officer after calling 911 at 5:13 p.m. Wednesday.
- The Oklahoman of the Paste BN Network obtained a copy of the 911 recording from a source.
TULSA, Okla. — After fatally shooting his doctor and three others, Michael Louis called his ex-wife, admitted what he had done and told her to check underneath a pillow, according to a 911 call she placed minutes later.
"He sounds hysterical," Edith Lubin told a Cherokee County sheriff's officer after calling 911 at 5:13 p.m. Wednesday.
"He just said like a couple of sentences and hung up," Lubin said. "I don't know where he's at. He wouldn't tell me where he's at. … He said, 'I just killed several people.'"
At the time of the 911 call, Louis, 45, was already dead, according to a police timeline of the nation's latest high-profile mass shooting.
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Louis shot himself just before 5 p.m. Wednesday as Tulsa police officers rushed to his location in a medical clinic on the second floor of the Natalie Medical Building on the Saint Francis Health System campus, the police chief said.
Dr. Preston Phillips, who had performed back surgery on Louis on May 19, was among four people killed in the attack.
Lubin said at the start of the 911 call that Louis had just called and told her "he harmed … the doctor that just did his surgery."
"I can't like reach him again," she said. "I tried to reach the doctor's office but maybe they closed."
She said he had talked of not liking something Dr. Phillips did, but she couldn't remember exactly.
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"I heard the killing part, and I heard (the) 'Dr. Phillips' part," she said. "And then he hung up on me. And I can't reach him after that. And he said check … under the pillow."
"So do you think that he went to Dr. Phillips' office, possibly?" the officer asked.
"I've never known him to have a psychiatric disorder," said Lubin, who is a doctor herself. "So I really hope not."
Lubin's call was routed to the 911 center in Cherokee County. An operator there directed the call to the sheriff's office. The sheriff's officer tried to transfer her to a Tulsa police non-emergency number after speaking to her for a few minutes. She apparently hung up.
The sheriff's officer then called Tulsa police himself to report the 911 call and to provide the caller's phone number. "I think she disconnected before you guys spoke with her," the officer said.
"She received a call from him that he had killed or hurt several people. … He mentioned … Dr. Phillips several times over at Saint Francis," the sheriff's officer said.
"Yeah, we've got a lot of officers out there," the Tulsa police operator responded.
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Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin on Thursday told reporters about the 911 call. The Oklahoman of the Paste BN Network obtained a copy of the recording from a source.
The police chief Thursday disclosed Louis bought a semi-automatic rifle about 2 p.m. Wednesday. Louis had bought a semi-automatic handgun at a pawn shop in nearby Muskogee on May 29. Both were used in the shooting, police said.
What was left under a pillow, if anything, has not been disclosed. Franklin did reveal Thursday that Louis had a letter on him making it clear he had targeted Phillips.
Louis had called the doctor's office several times following his surgery seeking further treatment for pain. He had seen the doctor for treatment Tuesday.