Former patient’s son kills Jewish doctor at Boston hospital

Dr. Michael Davidson, 44, was a father of three whose wife is pregnant; shooter’s siblings say he blamed surgeon for their mother’s death

By JTA 22 January 2015, 12:21 pm

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Boston Police Superintendent-in-Chief William Gross, center left, departs Brigham and Women's Hospital, Jan. 20, 2015. Stephen Pasceri allegedly murdered his mother's doctor, Michael Davidson, in a hospital exam room. (Photo credit: Steven Senne/AP)

BOSTON — A cardiovascular surgeon at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital was fatally shot by a former patient’s son, who subsequently killed himself.

Dr. Michael Davidson, 44, was shot twice on Tuesday morning in an exam room at the hospital, according to the Boston Globe, and died despite emergency surgery.

The shooter, Stephen Pasceri, 55, was subsequently found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.

Davidson, the director of endovascular cardiac surgery at the hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, had treated Pasceri’s mother in the late summer of 2014.

The victim, Michael Davidson, in 2006 after receiving an award for Young Clinician of the Year award. (Photo credit: Brigham and Women's Hospital) — The victim, Michael Davidson, in 2006 after receiving an award for Young Clinician of the Year award. (Photo credit: Brigham and Women’s Hospital)

Pasceri’s siblings say that Pasceri came to blame Davidson for their mother’s subsequent death, according to the Associated Press.

Davidson, a father of three, was an active member of Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, Massachusetts. His wife Terri Halperin, a plastic surgeon, is seven months pregnant with their fourth child.