Motive Sought In Hospital Shooting

BOSTON -- Police have identified the woman who died in a shooting at Massachusetts General Hospital. Sources are saying police believe Colleen Mitchell, 51, took her own life after firing a gun at a prominent cardiologist Brian McGovern.

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Gail Huff Reports On Woman's Identity

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that Mitchell lived alone in a Beacon Hill apartment on Champney Street. She got the MGH job through a temporary employment agency, and recently had been promoted to a position inside the lab where she worked in a clerical position with McGovern.

Mitchell became a certified social worker in 1994. Her New Jersey license expired in 1998, after which she moved to Boston. Tuesday she went to work in the hospital's Cardiac Arrhythmia Center and Electrophysiology Lab, where McGovern, 47, also worked. According to police sources she brought a gun, first shooting McGovern and then turning the gun on herself a little after 10 a.m. The shooting occurred in a small office near the lab, close to the emergency deparment.

"Both individuals were taken from the electrophysiology laboratory to the emergency department, where resuscitation efforts were undertaken, but unfortunately they were not successful," said Dr. Richard Slavin, president of MGH.

McGovern, a native of Ireland, was co-director of the hospital's Cardiac Arrhythmia Service and specialized in treating patients with disturbances of the heart rhythm. He lived in Boxford, Mass.

He also was an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chairman of the Atrial Fibrillation Foundation, created by patients and physicians to encourage research into the disease.

Slavin said McGovern was a "very well-respected, well-regarded" physician at the hospital, where he had worked for more than 20 years.

"He was an outgoing and friendly person. He had a nice Irish brogue and a twinkle in his eye," said David Torchiana, chief executive and chairman of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization.

Slavin said McGovern had two young daughters and was married to a physician, Dr. Ann Jennings, who did not work at Massachusetts General.

"Not only is this a very difficult episode, a tragic episode for them ... it's a very difficult episode for the entire MGH community," Slavin said.

"We are providing psychiatry and social service support to all of our employees who feel like they need some support from a skilled caregiver who knows how to help people through these tragedies," Slavin added.

The hospital is also reviewing security procedures, including considering whether to install metal detectors at the hospital.