HispanicBusiness

Police on Tuesday morning identified a man suspected of shooting a Newport Beach doctor.

Police arrested Stanwood Fred Elkus, 75, of Lake Elsinore, Monday on suspicion of shooting Dr. Ronald Gilbert, 52, of Huntington Beach, multiple times in the torso. Gilbert was pronounced dead at the scene at 520 Superior Ave., which housed Orange Coast Urology where he worked.

An autopsy is expected to be performed Tuesday, Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino told the Los Angeles Times.

Gilbert was on staff at Hoag Hospital for nearly 20 years. He joined Nov. 2, 1993, and served as chairman of the Urology Department between October 1998 and September 2002, according to a statement the hospital released Tuesday morning.

"Dr. Gilbert dedicated his career to serving others," Hoag Hospital President and Chief Executive Richard Afable said. "He was admired, respected and beloved by the Hoag family and will be deeply missed."

On Tuesday, the only indication of the shooting at Orange Coast Urology was a white computer printout on the door saying, "This office is closed today," with a number for immediate assistance. A security guard stood outside the building.

Workers in the building Monday said the shooting occurred in an exam room. Police confirmed only that the shooting occurred in an office portion of the building.

Employees wearing scrubs or white lab coats huddled outside late Monday afternoon, unable to enter the building. Others exited later in the evening saying they went about their work as police investigated on the second floor.

Becky Calderwood works two doors down from the suite where the shooting happened and worried about her safety from the possibility of gun violence.

"I sit right at the front desk; I would have caught the first bullet," she said. "This is nuts; people are just shooting everyone all the time."

Shortly after the shooting, police led an older man wearing a baseball cap in handcuffs out of the building.

Gilbert practiced urology out of a suite of a three-story building in the Hoag Hospital-affiliated complex.

Authorities received a call about 2:45 p.m. Monday that six or seven shots were fired on the second floor of that building, according to police spokeswoman Kathy Lowe.

Kristin Crotty works directly above Gilbert's office. She said Monday that she heard gunshots but "blew it off as construction."

She said what she heard sounded like a nail gun, and she didn't know what was going on until she called building services and they told her to lock her door.

A sign outside the three-story medical building says the building houses Hoag outpatient services and lists the Allen Diabetes Center, physicians' offices and a CHOC diabetes center as occupants.

"I am terrified," Crotty said Monday. "I just want to get home to my family right now."

A man answered the door at Gilbert's large hacienda-style home in Huntington Harbour on Tuesday, saying "we're really in a state of mourning right now."

A neighbor said Monday evening that the family was "really nice."

"I have nothing but good things to say," neighbor Betty Combs said. As practicing Jews, "On Saturdays, [the Gilberts] dressed to the nines and walked to synagogue."