Minneapolis MN: The 30-year-old lawyer suspected of killing prominent Orono, MN, physician Dr. Stephen LARSON, 74, had expressed hostility toward LARSON because of how he believed the doctor had treated his mother in an undisclosed medical situation, police said Monday.
Ted C. HOFFSTROM of St. Anthony MN, confronted Orono police outside the 74-year-old OBGYN doctor’s home with a semi-automatic handgun Friday night. “Diligent attempts to negotiate” with HOFFSTROM failed and he was shot and killed, authorities said. Dr LARSON was then found dead inside the house, shot with the gun HOFFSTROM had wielded, ballistics tests would show.
“This is a tragedy of epic proportions for both families involved, as well as the community of Orono,” Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek said Monday afternoon at a news conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sheriff Stanek told reporters that HOFFSTROM’s motive is still unclear. However, HOFFSTROM had allegedly expressed hostility toward LARSON’s family because of how the doctor had treated HOFFSTROM’s delivery when he was born 30 years ago. It is believed HOFFSTROM blamed Dr LARSON for a birth defect that left him with limited hand mobility.
Just before 21:00 Friday, Orono officers responded to a call about trouble at Dr LARSON’s house on Heritage Lane. LARSON had been on the phone with someone who heard him answer the door and heard startling noises. When Dr LARSON didn’t return to the phone, the person he had been talking to called police, Stanek said. “We know who committed this murder, yet many unanswered questions remain,” Stanek said. “Orono is a safe community, and there is no threat to the public at this time,” Deputy Chief Chris Fischer said.
Dr LARSON, who founded a medical group in Edina and Burnsville, was a well-known expert on pelvic surgery and a former adjunct professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women’s Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
State records show that Dr LARSON was reprimanded in unrelated instances twice in his 40-year career as a licensed physician, in 1990 and 1996. He was fined $1,000 in each case, and no corrective action was required. According to State birth records, Dr LARSON was not the primary doctor at Mr HOFFSTROM’s delivery in 1983.
‘Doesn’t make any sense’
For some who knew Mr HOFFSTROM, his death and suspected involvement in Dr LARSON’s death came as a complete shock.
HOFFSTROM graduated from the University of St. Thomas law school in 2009 and was sworn in to the bar last month. An online résumé listed brief stints as an intern for state Sen. Chuck Wiger in 2006 and for two Hennepin County District Court judges in 2008. He also spent his summers for 12 years working at Gross Golf Club in Minneapolis. He had a virtually spotless record, and a friendly demeanor, friends say.
“He was one of the best guys I’ve ever known,” said Nick Houwman, a high school friend who had seen HOFFSTROM three weeks ago after he was sworn in to the bar on Oct. 25. “This doesn’t make any sense.” Another friend, Chris Miller, stayed in touch with HOFFSTROM after they studied journalism at the University of Minnesota. “That’s not the Ted HOFFSTROM I know,” he said of the shooting, “it’s shocking”.
Work-related violence is not unknown to the nation’s doctors. An average of five physicians and 20 health care providers die each year in the United States as a result of assaults or other workplace violence, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports dating back to 2003.
That tally, however, does not include killings outside the workplace and would not have counted LARSON’s death.
Police said Ted HOFFSTROM was upset at how he believed Dr Stephen LARSON treated his mother’s medical condition. He was denied his hospital medical records but according to State birth records, Dr LARSON was not the primary doctor at Mr HOFFSTROM’s delivery in 1983.