$1.2M Bail Granted to Suspect Accused of Fatally Wounding Esteemed and Beloved Tennessee Surgeon

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A person charged with killing a hand surgeon at a Tennessee clinic was being held on $1.2 million bail Thursday as those that knew the physician remembered him as a talented and beloved medical skilled who cared for his sufferers.

Larry Pickens, 29, informed a decide on Thursday that he couldn’t afford the bail and wasn’t positive if he might afford a lawyer, the Business Enchantment reported. He didn’t enter a plea. Choose Lee Ann Dobson informed Pickens a public defender wouldn’t value him something and set his subsequent court docket date for July 20.

Pickens was charged with first-degree homicide and aggravated assault within the taking pictures of Dr. Benjamin Mauck at Campbell Clinic Orthopedics within the Memphis suburb of Collierville on Tuesday. Police mentioned Mauck was shot in an examination room and that Pickens had been on the clinic for a number of hours earlier than the taking pictures.

Authorities haven’t disclosed a attainable motive for the taking pictures.

In the meantime, police within the Memphis suburb of Germantown mentioned they obtained two calls on July 5 about Pickens displaying uncommon conduct on the Campbell Clinic there. Pickens didn’t make any threats of violence, police mentioned.

He was requested to go away the property and was warned about trespassing, police studies mentioned.

“The employees was stating that Mr. Pickens was asking uncommon questions concerning the docs like the place the docs parked their vehicles,” a police report mentioned.

Germantown and Collierville are east of Memphis.

The Collierville clinic remained closed Thursday, however different places that had been closed after the taking pictures have reopened, Campbell Clinic mentioned in a press release.

“You’ll discover extra security measures in any respect places, together with elevated safety presence and safety patrol,” the assertion mentioned. “We’ve got additionally requested native legislation enforcement to extend their patrol of our places.”

Mauck’s household launched a press release by lawyer Blanchard E. Tual on Thursday.

“This week, a mindless act of violence took an unbelievable individual from us,” the household mentioned. “Ben was a surgeon, husband, father, son, brother, mentor, and buddy. As we grieve this tragedy, our household is selecting to deal with the constructive contributions Ben made to the world, personally and professionally.”

Sufferers and colleagues remembered Mauck as a devoted doctor and buddy.

Le Bonheur Youngsters’s Hospital mentioned its employees had been grieving the lack of their colleague. “He left a mark on the lives of the numerous sufferers he helped and our Le Bonheur household,” the hospital mentioned in a tweet.

Mauck joined the Le Bonheur/Campbell Clinic Pediatric Hand Clinic in 2012 after finishing a hand surgical procedure fellowship on the College of Texas Well being Science Heart in San Antonio, in line with an article posted on the hospital’s web site.

The clinic treats youngsters with congenital abnormalities or traumatic accidents of the hand and higher extremities, the hospital mentioned.

“The human hand is a so vital to what makes us human — how we work together with the world round us and one another,” Mauck mentioned within the article. “I wished to be part of restoring a sufferers’ means to do this.”

Within the article, Kaitlynn Vaughn mentioned Mauck operated on the clasped thumbs of her 4-year-old son, who was born with a type of arthrogryposis, a genetic dysfunction that primarily affected his arms and ft.

“We love Dr. Mauck and are so pleased with how Cayden’s process turned out,” she mentioned.

In an electronic mail despatched to Le Bonheur employees after the taking pictures, interim president and surgeon-in-chief Trey Eubanks referred to as Mauck’s demise “an unthinkable tragedy.” Eubanks mentioned Mauck was a beloved colleague and devoted physician.

“We already miss him,” Eubanks mentioned in a press release despatched to The Related Press.

Mauck graduated from Lambuth College in 2002 and the College of Tennessee’s medical faculty in 2006, in line with a biography posted on Campbell Clinic’s web site.

Memphis musician Chris Milam mentioned Mauck carried out surgical procedure on his hand in 2018.

“My future as a guitar participant & artist would’ve regarded drastically totally different if not for his work,” Milam mentioned in a tweet. “I knew him as a wonderful physician and a cheerful, conscientious man.”