The shooter who opened fire inside a Minnesota health clinic Tuesday was a local man “very familiar” to law enforcement, police said.
Gregory Paul Ulrich, 67, has been identified as the gunman who critically injured five people around 11 a.m. at the Allina Health Clinic in Buffalo, police said.
“There is no information at this point that leads us to believe there is any nexus with any type of domestic terrorism. We are very familiar with the suspect,” Chief Pat Budke told reporters.
Police responding to reports of gunfire took Ulrich into custody.
Officials believe that he acted alone and aren’t looking for additional suspects.
The gunman who killed a nurse and injured four other people inside of a Minnesota health clinic Tuesday had a vendetta against doctors because they refused to give him painkillers, a report said.
Gregory Ulrich, who killed at least one nurse at the Allina Health Clinic in Buffalo outside of Minneapolis, had a particular grudge against one doctor and even affixed a sign in front of his mobile home calling the professional a “quack,” former roommate Raymond Zastra told FOX 9.
“He didn’t like the doctors because they wouldn’t give him all the painkillers he wanted. They’d give him a month supply, and it would be gone in a few days,” Zastra, who lived with Ulrich in his trailer for two years until last July, told the outlet.
The former roommate said Ulrich was often high on painkillers and was seen sniffing glue, smoking marijuana, drinking excessively and would “just sit on the couch high.”
A year ago, Zastra said he saw a letter Ulrich received that granted him permission to carry a weapon. “He showed me a new handgun he got, I said, ‘What?’ You shouldn’t have a gun,” the roomie recalled.
The Buffalo Police Department and the Wright County Sheriff’s Office both said Ulrich was well known to the department and “had a history of conflict” with incidents dating back to 2003.
He’d previously been arrested for drunken driving, possession of marijuana and has two convictions for gross misdemeanor drunken driving that resulted in jail time.
Zastra said police responded to their home more than a dozen times when he lived with Ulrich and he was “nothing but trouble.”
Ulrich had also sent a “disturbing letter” to Zion Lutheran Church in Buffalo in 2019, according to the church’s newsletter.
“Pastor Ted informed the council of a disturbing letter received from Greg Ulrich. The Buffalo Police Department was called and informed Pastor Ted that Mr. Ulrich is well known to them and recommended that a no trespassing order be issued so that if he ever did appear at Zion the police could take action,” the September 2019 newsletter reads.
“The order was issued the following day and the staff have been given a picture of Mr. Ulrich and informed to call 911 if he does appear on any of Zion’s properties.”
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