Hospital Shooting

The Hospital Shooting refers to the shooting carried out by Gary Clark, at what was then named Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in 2010.

Background
Alison Clark was admitted to the hospital when she collapsed in a grocery store. It was determined that her cancer had returned, and that surgery would be needed to remove it. The operation was performed by Richard Webber and went well, but Alison later had a stroke and was being kept alive by the mechanical ventilation.

Three years prior, Alison had signed a form asking that life support be stopped in the event that she was being kept alive by such a device. Her husband, Gary Clark, was unhappy to follow that medical directive. He thought that the form was signed too long ago for it to have bearing on the current situation, and that Alison could still wake up.

However, Derek Shepherd, who was Chief of Surgery, had to follow the directive signed by the patient and stopped the life support following a review made by the ethics committee. Gary objected but the life support was stopped by Lexie Grey and Alison passed away.

Gary decided to sue the hospital for wrongful death, claiming they were responsible for Alison's death. He singled out Derek Shepherd in particular. There was a hearing at the hospital where Derek gave his piece on what happened. Derek stood by his knowledge that Alison had miminal brain activity and that meant she would never make a full recovery. Gary was upset by his words throughout the day.

Gary was particularly angered by the fact Derek had not only decided that the life support would definitely be stopped, but by the fact that he had not shown up when the decision was carried out. Derek had tried his best to be sensitive, but Gary was very upset by the pending lawsuit.

The Shooting
In light of the meeting with Derek and the grief for his wife, Gary became very angry at the hospital and the actions of everyone involved. He intended to get revenge by killing the three doctors responsible in a shooting. Gary arrived at the hospital and decided to ask for help in finding Derek. The people he asked were busy and unhelpful. He then went into a supply closet where he found Reed Adamson. Reed told him that he was asking the wrong person - she was a doctor, not a tour guide, and reminded him that he shouldn't be in the supply room. In response, Gary suddenly shot her in the head and killed her instantly.

The commotion was heard by Alex Karev, who came to see what had happened. Gary then shot him in the chest and left. Alex then made his way to the elevator. April Kepner then arrived at the supply closet, where she slipped in Reed's blood. She went into shock at seeing her friend and went to tell Derek what had happened. Derek then started a lockdown.

Meanwhile, Gary was taking an elevator with Cristina Yang. He asked her for directions to Derek's office, and she gave him the directions he needed which probably unintentionally saved her life. They then went their separate ways.

The lockdown was being initiated when Derek decided to leave his office and go to the operating room. He told April to stay in the office. Jackson Avery was part of a team with Teddy Altman and Owen Hunt, who were operating on a patient. Derek asked Jackson to step outside for a minute, and told him what was happening. He told him that he and the team had to stay in the operating room until the lockdown was over, and Jackson returned to the operation shaking.

Having left the elevator, Gary made his way through a lobby and up the nearby stairs. Vivian tried to stop him, reminding him that the lockdown meant everyone had to stay put. Gary then turned around and shot her. Lexie and Mark Sloan ducked, and Lexie went to check on Vivian while Gary continued to shoot. Lexie saw Vivian was dead, and Mark then helped Lexie to the elevator. When the doors opened, they found Alex bleeding out. They took him to a conference room, and started treating him.

The news of the shooting reached people on the outside, including Richard Webber who arrived at the hospital and spoke to the police. He asked Marty what they were doing to help the people inside reach safety. Marty replied they were going through each floor at a time and that he needed to be patient.

Gary then walked around the next floor, where he continued to shoot people. He went into various rooms, checking them. He then found the room of patient Mary Portman, who was with Miranda Bailey and Charles Percy. Having noticed that Gary was about to walk into the room, Mary was instructed to play dead. Bailey hid under the bed, while Charles hid in the adjacent room.

Gary walked in the room, and was saddened to find Mary had "died". He was about to leave the room, when he heard Charles. He opened the door, and asked him whether he was a surgeon. Charles replied that he was, and Gary shot him in the abdomen. Bailey then made a noise in shock, and Gary pulled her out and asked her whether she was a surgeon too. Bailey lied and said she was a nurse, and Gary left her alone.

Bailey started treating Charles with the help of Mary. Teddy and Owen completed their surgery and Jackson told them about the lockdown and how they had to stay in the room. They decided to leave anyway, because they needed their patient, Pete, to be warmed up in the ICU.

Cristina with Meredith. They heard shooting and hid in a cupboard. Cristina recognised him from their earlier meeting and remembered that he was seeking Derek. She told Meredith, who became worried about her husband. Meanwhile, Lexie and Mark continued to treat Alex, realising that he need a blood transfusion. Lexie needed to leave the room to retrieve it.

Derek was walking back to his office when Gary finally found him on the bridge. Derek failed to recognise Gary at first, telling him he needed to hide. Gary then reminded him who he was, how Derek had hurt him, and then held the gun up at Derek. Meredith and Cristina were trying to reach Derek first and watched their meeting taking place above them. Derek tried to reason with Gary, telling him that he was merely a flawed human being who makes mistakes. Gary then became sympathetic and lowered his gun. However, April then startled Gary by running onto the bridge to tell Derek he needed to get to a safe place, and in response, Gary shot Derek in the chest.

While Derek lay bleeding out, Gary pointed the gun at April. April started stalling Gary by telling him things about herself and her family, saying that she was a human being who was loved. Gary sympathised with her, and let her go. He returned to Derek to see whether he had died, but abandoned that when he noticed the police arriving and trying to get in to the hospital.

Teddy and Owen kept trying to reach the ICU with their patient until they saw a dead body and decided they had to phone 911 to get the patient out of the hospital. Richard continued to ask Marty for updates outside the hospital, where he heard many 911 calls from inside the hospital which told him that the shooter was looking for and had shot Derek.

Elsewhere, Meredith and Cristina had run to the bridge to help Derek. Cristina went to retrieve a wheelchair for Derek, and found April. She enlisted April's help in saving Derek and returned to him. Mark continued to treat Alex while Lexie looked for supplies to save him.

Lexie was heading back to Alex when Gary found her. She recognised him immediately, and he held the gun up at her. He confided in her that he never wanted to kill the number of people he had. He wanted to hurt her, Derek and Webber for what they had done. Webber performed the operation, Derek gave the order to stop life support and she had carried that out. Gary was then shot by the police, giving Lexie time to get away.

Gary, now wounded in the shoulder, made his way to the Pediatric Department where he found Arizona Robbins and Callie Torres operating on Ruby Kendall. Gary asked them for help, while Robbins shielded the child with her own body to protect her. Robbins told him that there were only children here, begging him to leave them alone. Callie then threw bandages at Gary to help him, and he left them alone.

Webber then learnt that the shooter was Gary Clark. Realising why Gary was doing this and that he was seeking the doctors responsible for his wife's passing, he decided he needed to get into the hospital.

Bailey and Mary managed to stop Charles from bleeding, but their work fell apart and they needed to get him to the operating room to give him the best chance at surviving. They put together a sheet to carry him to the room. Cristina, Meredith and April were doing the same for Derek with the help of a wheelchair, and made it to the operating room.

However, they went to look for Teddy to help and only found Jackson instead. He told them that Teddy had left earlier since she was trying to get her patient to ICU. He told Cristina that she should do the operation instead, to which she agreed with persuasion.

Mark and Lexie were still treating Alex when the police arrived and told them they were to be evacuated along with Teddy, Owen and their patient. Webber was still outside trying to get into the hospital. He managed to find an opportunity to run in despite an attempt to stop him. Owen followed suit when he realised Cristina was still inside.

Bailey and Mary managed to get Charles to the elevators, only to realise the elevators were stopped by the police. Knowing Charles would now die, she stayed with him and told him she and Mary would stay with him while he passed away. Charles wanted them to tell everyone that he was a hero, and they agreed they would, because he is.

Meredith and April stayed in the scrub room while Cristina operated, because Cristina needed to concentrate without Meredith watching. Owen then arrived to their joy, but when he looked into the operating room and appeared startled, they became worried. Owen told them to stay there and went into the room. They then looked in and found Gary in the room pointing a gun at Cristina. They followed Owen into the room, where Gary was explaining to Cristina that he needed Derek to die in retribution and told her to stop trying to save Derek. Meredith then tried to stop him by telling him to shoot her instead. She explained her connection to the three people he held responsible, and he went to shoot her until Cristina told him that Meredith was pregnant.

Gary stopped which made Owen try to apprehend him. He failed and Gary shot him. Jackson then faked Derek's death by removing the lead that connected his heartbeat to the monitor, and Gary left. He then reconnected them, and continued to operate on Derek. Meredith and April then took Owen to another operating room to save him.

While Charles lay dying, he said he wanted Bailey to tell Reed that he loved her, who unbeknownst to them had already died that day, and told Bailey that she was his favourite doctor. Charles then passed away. April and Meredith continued trying to retrieve the bullet from Owen's shoulder, to which they succeeded despite Meredith suffering a miscarriage while they worked.

Webber then found Gary in the ICU. Gary explained to Webber that he now had a problem. He had only one bullet left. He wanted to shoot Webber, but he had hoped to kill Webber and then himself. He now had to make a choice between him and Webber, and when Webber pointed out that Gary would spend the rest of his life locked up unless he killed himself, Gary then decided to shoot himself, sparing Webber.

Teddy had gone to Seattle Pres with the other survivors where she saved Alex. Cristina saved Derek and Owen recovered. Bailey and Mary were evacuated where Mary was reunited with her husband. Bailey then looked for Reed to give her the message Charles wanted her to have, only to be told how Reed had died in the shooting too.

Aftermath
A few months later, the doctors had returned to work following therapy to evaluate their wellbeing. There was a new security system put in place for a while, and the road to recovery was covered by a documentary crew who filmed the hospital six months later. The new security system was abandoned when it created problems.

Webber agreed to promote the hospital in a better light when patients became scared of seeking help at the hospital. The promotion worked and life eventually returned to normal.

Behind the Scenes

 * Even though Gary was hoping to shoot Derek Shepherd, Richard Webber and Lexie Grey for their part in the death of his wife, he only managed to shoot one of them and Derek survived. He killed eleven of the nineteen people he shot, and ironically the vast majority of them had nothing to do with what happened to his wife.
 * Gary mainly shot people who he perceived to be unhelpful, unknowingly got in his way and were simply surgeons.