Navy Doctor Barricades Self After Shooting

A Navy doctor barricaded herself in her room at the 32nd Street Naval Station on Thursday after she shot and wounded a psychiatrist who wanted her to undergo a psychiatric examination, Navy officials said.

Navy spokesman Capt. Dave Ewing said military officials had been unable to convince the 37-year-old doctor, whose identity was unknown, to come out of her second-story room at the station’s bachelors’ officers quarters as of late Thursday.

The incident began shortly before 4 p.m., when Navy psychiatrist James T. Fowler III and two other officers went to the doctor’s room to convince her to undergo the examination at the Navy Hospital in Balboa Park, said Ewing.

Shot in Hand

The woman apparently shot Fowler in the hand when he unlocked the door with a pass key and tried to push it open, said Ewing. Fowler was shot in the finger and was taken to Navy Hospital, where he was treated and released.

Ewing described the woman as a doctor who was working on her residency at Navy Hospital when her credentials were taken away about six months ago. She was subsequently reassigned to administrative duties at the 32nd Street medical clinic, he said.

After the shooting Thursday, the officers’ quarters were evacuated and the Navy’s crisis response team was called in. The woman asked to talk to her commanding officer, but then changed her mind when he was called to the scene at about 7:30 p.m., said Ewing.

Navy negotiators tried unsuccessfully to get the doctor to open her door and take a special headset into her room so that they could communicate with her.

“We want to talk to her,” said Ewing. “We want to reason with her. We want to get her to voluntarily go to Balboa.

“There’s no thought of grabbing her or charging her right now,” he said. “It’s a medical problem. She needs treatment.”