A gunman who complained he had a botched 2010 surgery left a suicide note outlining plans for his attack before targeting physicians in a deadly rampage at a medical office that left one doctor dead and another critically wounded, police said yesterday. Alan Oliver Frazier of Plumas County, Calif., a 51-year-old former power plant control room operator, calmly bypassed patients waiting at a Nevada urology medical practice on Tuesday then opened fire with a pistol-grip 12-gauge shotgun at doctors in the examination room.
"We may never know the suspect's exact motive or reason for his actions, but there is indication that his focus was on the physicians at this specific office," Reno police Lt. William Rulla said. Police, who identified Frazier for the first time yesterday as the gunman, said they searched the man's home in Northern California and found evidence that he was plotting the attack: "a typed letter indicating the suspect's intention to commit this horrific act. We also located other firearms within the residence, as well as notes indicating the suspect's actions during this incident were to be his final actions." Police said Frazier had a surgery in 2010 and claimed to have adverse symptoms because of it. But it was not immediately clear if the unspecified procedure was performed at Urology Nevada or if either of the two doctors who were shot had been involved. (More Alan Oliver Frazier stories.)