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BUFFALO, Minn. (WCCO) — A jury deliberated for six hours Thursday before finding Gregory Ulrich guilty of all 11 counts against him — including murder, attempted murder and setting off explosives — for last year’s deadly attack at the Allina Crossroads Clinic in Buffalo, which left one woman dead and four others seriously injured.
After the verdict was read, Wright County Prosecutor Brian Lutes, with clinic staff behind him, said the trial was easy because there was overwhelming evidence in their favor, but difficult when you consider the emotional toll Ulrich’s actions caused on the victims and Buffalo community.
“You can’t imagine the terror that these people experienced because of what the defendant did. Again, innocent, helpless workers who went to work that day to help people who were just traumatized, and still are,” Lutes said. “That was the only acceptable sentence in the state’s view for the horrific crime that he committed and the way he shattered so many lives.
When asked by the judge if he had any questions after the verdict was read, Ulrich thought to himself for a moment, then calmly said, “No.”
He will face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole for being found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. He’s being held without bail, and will be sentenced on June 17.
Ulrich, 68, took to the stand in his defense Thursday morning, where he admitted to shooting all of the victims. Each victim was a clinic employee, including nurse Lindsay Overbay, who died from her injuries.
“I never doubted that he was going to be found guilty. I just hope he understands the destruction, devastation, heartbreak, anxiety, and stress that his actions brought about, to my family, Lindsay’s family, the other victims, Allina health staff, the Buffalo Community, the Law enforcement involved, and his Family as well,” the victim’s husband, Donnie Overbay, told WCCO. “But, I doubt he does … otherwise he would have never even considered doing what he did.”
He told the court he has been experiencing pain since 2016 after a surgery addressing scoliosis. He said he was given two months of pain medication, and was then cut off for refills despite persistent and unbearable pain. He said he asked over 50 medical professionals to help with his pain, and after being denied he sent letters to law enforcement, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former President Donald Trump.
Gregory Ulrich on the stand. (credit: Cedric Hohnstadt)
After receiving no response, Ulrich said he went to Allina Crossroads Clinic to cause “property damage” using pipebombs and a handgun, the latter of which he brought to blow out windows. Ulrich said it wasn’t his intention to kill anyone at the clinic, but to cause pain like his own. He added that none of the people he shot at ever provided him care for his pain.
“I had to bring attention to what these people did to me. I needed someone to listen … I wanted to sensationalize and get a louder message. I wanted to get in the papers and get people’s attention so people understand what pain is like without medication,” he said.
In the state’s closing argument, they said Urlich was premeditated in his intent to kill nurses, even if the five victims were not individually and specifically targeted.
The state showed a video Urlich made a little more than a month before the shooting, where he says to the camera, “Grab your f—ing pistol. Go down there and kill as many nurses as you can.” In the video, he says he’s “saving all seniors” who are living in pain.
In the defense’s closing argument they said that Ulrich planned to “wreck havoc, mayhem and get attention,” but he did not premeditatively intend to kill anyone.
The defense played the 911 call Ulrich made from inside the clinic in which he tells the operator about the five injured women. He asks for help and tells the operator to have police back off, and that he will surrender.
(credit: Cedric Hohnstadt)
The defense stated that in order for Ulrich to be convicted of first-degree murder it must be shown that he (1) intended to cause death with premeditation and (2) acted with the intent to kill another person.
In the state’s final rebuttal, prosecutors argued that Ulrich set off two more pipe bombs after shooting the five women and told police to back off. By doing that, he delayed care to those victims, which they argued is premeditated intent.
Sherry Curtis, who was shot several times in the attack, released this statement Thursday after the verdict: “I am just truly happy and relieved that it is finally over. Justice has been served and that man cannot hurt any of us ever again. WE WIN!!!”
Tulsa Shooting Similarities
This week’s mass shooting at a medical facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, looks to have a similar motivation to the shooting in Buffalo.
According to Tulsa police, the gunman had recently undergone back surgery and had called a clinic repeatedly complaining of pain. The police chief says the doctor who performed the surgery was among the four people killed in the attack.
The gunman purchased an AR-style rifle hours before the fatal shooting, and blamed the doctor for his ongoing pain, police said.
Wednesday’s shooting on the campus of Saint Francis Health System happened the same week that families in Uvalde, Texas, began burying the dead from the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade.
Source: CBS
