TX Doctor Katherine Dodson ID’d As Victim In Tuesday Austin Medical Center Hostage Situation

TRAVIS COUNTY, TX. (THECOUNT) — Dr. Katherine Lindley Spaht Dodson, originally of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been identified as the victim fatally shot during a Tuesday hostage situation in Travis County, Texas.

Dodson, 43, was shot dead by fellow doctor, 43-year-old Bharat Narumanchi, after he took hostages at an Austin medical center on Tuesday.

According to reports, for unknown reasons, Dr. Narumanchi, a pediatrician, entered the Children’s Medical Group offices with several firearms and took hostages around 4:30 Tuesday afternoon.

During a SWAT standoff, all but one of the hostages were allowed to escape. At some point, Dodson was fatally shot. Narumanchi then turned the gun on himself.

Narumanchi, who had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer, was denied a job at the facility a week earlier.

The victim’s mother, Katherine Spaht, is a retired LSU law professor. Her father, Paul Spaht, is a Baton Rouge attorney.

Dodson completed her undergraduate degree in chemistry at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., where she graduated magna cum laude, her LinkedIn profile says. Family members say she attended medical school at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

She joined the Children’s Medical Group as a pediatrician in 2017 and was named as one of the top pediatricians in Texas by Texas Super Doctors in 2019.

Dodson is survived by her husband, her two daughters, and her son.

The cause of the deadly incident remains under investigation.

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Geo quick facts: Travis County is a county in south central Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,024,266; the estimated population in 2019 was 1,273,954. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat is Austin, the capital of Texas – Wikipedia.