On the morning of Sept. 16, a gunman shot Dr. David Cohen in the abdomen at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. A graduate of the UR School of Medicine and Dentistry, Cohen collapsed and was rushed to the operating room.
Cohen had performed spinal surgery on Paul Warren Pardus’s 84-year-old mother, Jean Davis, the week before to treat her paralysis from arthritis and rheumatism. News of the unsuccessful surgery sent Pardus into a downward spiral that resulted in the shooting.
After receiving this news, Pardus, also known as Warren Davis, lost control of his emotions and opened fire.
He proceeded to barricade himself in his mother’s room for two hours. When the police finally burst into the room, Pardus and his mother were found dead from gunshot wounds. City police dubbed the scene a murder-suicide.
Pardus was confronted with his mother’s condition at 11 a.m. on Sept. 16. According to CBS, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld III said, “[At that point], he became emotionally distraught and reacted … and was overwhelmed by the news of his mother’s condition.”
News reports say Cohen was in stable condition on Wednesday, Sept. 22, and is expected to survive.
Forty five-year-old Cohen is an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins. He also specializes in spinal surgery, osteoporosis and scoliosis. He graduated from URMC in 1990 and completed his residency at Johns Hopkins in the department of orthopedic surgery.
Cohen is married to a JHU nurse and has two young children.
Lim is a member of the class of 2014.
