Court rules doctors not liable for 2012 Western Psych shooting spree

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has upheld an earlier ruling that doctors who treated a mentally ill man who shot five people in Pittsburgh in 2012 can’t be held responsible for the shooting.

On March 8, 2012, John Shick, 30, went on a shooting spree at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Oakland, killing a therapist and injuring four others before he was shot and killed by police.

Kathryn Leight, who worked as a receptionist at the hospital at the time, was among the injured.

She and her husband, John Leight, sued the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Physicians and UPMC for the injuries she suffered.

According to the lawsuit, Shick had been exhibiting symptoms of severe mental illness since 2005, when he was put on anti-psychotic medication.

He was committed to numerous medical centers, usually against his will, for psychiatric care, according to the lawsuit.

In 2011, Shick became a patient at the UPMC Shadyside Family Health Center. Unlike his involuntary stints in psychiatric centers, he went there willingly for non-psychiatric health problems.

He visited the center many times over the next few months, seeing several doctors and complaining of a host of symptoms including neck pain, belching, diabetes, high cholesterol and erectile dysfunction.

Doctors at the clinic began to suspect that Shick’s health problems were rooted in mental illness, both because of his behavior at the time and his medical history, according to the lawsuit.

Eventually he was evaluated by a psychiatrist at Western Psych, who diagnosed Shick with schizophrenia and “strongly advised” therapy.

Shick refused, and continued to visit the health center regularly.

At one point Shick threatened a nurse at Shadyside Family with a baseball bat, according to the lawsuit.

Soon after, doctors began communicating with Western Psych, asking what they needed to do to have a Shick “involuntarily committed,” but did not fill out the paperwork required to do so, the lawsuit said.

At the end of February, 2018, Shadyside Family sent Shick a letter saying the office would not see him anymore.

The next week, Shick walked into the lobby of Western Psych with two loaded handguns and started shooting.

The Leights argued in their lawsuit that the UPMC doctors who treated John Shick should have done more to get him into a psychiatric facility, and that not doing so was criminally negligent.

In 2014, Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge R. Stanton Wettick ruled that the doctors had no legal duty to commit Shick.

The state Mental Health Procedures Act says medical professionals can only be held liable in cases of “willful misconduct or gross negligence,” and it does not apply to doctors who are treating a patient who is coming to them voluntarily, as Shick was at Shadyside, according to the Superior Court opinion written by Judge John Musmanno.

“While we sympathize with the Leights’ argument, the Court cannot conclude that the mere thought or consideration of initiating an involuntary examination during voluntary outpatient treatment falls within the explicit scope of the MHPA,” he wrote.

The Leights’ lawyer, Mark Homyak could not be immediately reached for comment.

Shick’s State Farm renter’s insurance policy in 2014 paid out $500,000 to be split among eight victims — including the four who were injured, the family of slain therapist Michael Schaab, and three others who claimed emotional distress.

The Schaab family also received a $1.5 million settlement from UPMC in 2015.

Jacob Tierney is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jacob at 724-836-6646, jtierney@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Soolseem.