Florida doctor hailed as ‘heroic’ for stopping gunman at VA medical center, FBI says

Larry Ray Bon, the FBI says, opened fire at this VA medical center in Riviera Beach, Florida, on Wednesday night. (Google Maps)

A Florida doctor is being hailed as a hero by the FBI after tackling a double-amputee patient who opened fire in the emergency room of a VA medical center.

FBI Special Agent Justin Fleck said the doctor, who was not identified, managed to lunge at Larry Ray Bon in between shots Wednesday night at the facility in Riviera Beach -- despite having been already hit in the neck by a bullet. Bon, a wheelchair-bound 59-year-old patient, had been combative all day and eventually pulled out a handgun from underneath a cushion, officials said.

“The same doctor who sustained the neck injury was the same person who subdued the subject... he’s doing well and he did a heroic thing today,” Fleck told reporters.

The doctor was treated and released from a hospital in West Palm Beach. Another employee was grazed by a bullet and is said to have suffered minimal injuries.

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Bon was in the U.S. Army briefly in the 1970s, yet his leg amputations are not believed to be linked to his service, officials told NBC News. They added that a warrant has been out for his arrest in Michigan and he may have been homeless in South Florida.

Bon was taken into custody but had not been charged as of Thursday morning. The FBI was still investigating the incident.