On Monday afternoon at the Anheuser-Busch Eye Institute, a 70-year-old man shot and wounded two employees because he was apparently dissatisfied with his cataract surgery.
Joseph Spiller walked into the building around 3:15 p.m., demanding that he be attended to. Dr. Steven M. Verity, a respected ophthalmologist, confronted Spiller and escorted him into a side hallway. Spiller then pulled out a gun and shot Verity twice, once in the left cheek and once in the abdomen. The latter shot went through Verity’s liver.
Roxanne Canter, who works with Verity as a refractive surgery coordinator, was shot twice as well; both shots lodged in her back. After shooting the victims, Spiller exited the Institute and drove away with four guns and 400 rounds of ammunition.
Police caught Spiller nearly an hour later in O’Fallon, Mo. He was charged with two counts of felony assault and two counts of armed criminal action.
Verity and Canter were rushed to Saint Louis University Hospital. They were listed in fair condition.
Kathy Hagedorn, Saint Louis University director of Human Resources, said, “Obviously, everyone was terribly shocked and saddened by the events on Monday.” She added that SLU immediately provided three counselors for the Institute’s workers, but anyone at the University may use the counselors if the incident has affected them in any way.
“They are very effective in these types of situations. One, Teri McCarthy, was on site 20 minutes after the shooting,” she said.
University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., visited Verity, Canter and their families on Tuesday.
Though Spiller easily walked into and out of the building with the gun, Hagedorn said, “You can’t put a metal detector at every door of every building that Tenet or the University owns. I’m not sure there would be anything to prevent Monday’s situation.”
The A-B Eye Institute is a part of SLU hospital, which is owned by Tenet. The company purchased the hospital from SLU in 1997.
Some information for this story was gathered from The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
