City and county emergency teams carefully assist residents during a nursing home murder-suicide

ROCHESTER, NY – Rochester police are still trying to determine why 70-year-old Robert Abert shot and killed his 94-year-old mother Florence Abert before turning the gun on himself Sunday at Pearl Nursing Center in Rochester.

The initial call came in of a possible active shooter at the nursing home, bringing dozens of first responders to the scene. News10NBC reported this on Monday, For a brief period, other residents and staff at the nursing center were unsure if they were in immediate danger until police cleared the facility room by room and found both Aberts dead.

The City of Rochester and Monroe County Medical Director, Dr. Jeremy Cushman, was tasked with making sure EMTs and paramedics could reach anyone inside who needed help. “I cannot imagine that the staff and residents of the facility have gone through this experience. There are no words to describe what that experience was like for them,” he told News10BC.

That’s why Dr. Cushman, paramedics and firefighters spoke to all residents shortly after the shooting. “As we went into each room we just wanted to reassure them that they were safe, that there were no concerns for their safety at the time, but that we had to remove them so that the police could investigate,” he recalled.

The ambulance teams then carefully moved the residents and the medical equipment they needed from the scene.

“Fortunately, just off the first floor there is a large room that was commandeered if you will to be able to move all these individuals and it was single digits, but certainly some of them had some complex medical needs, and we were able to accommodate them to move them all there so that facility staff could basically go right back to work and start caring for them,” says Dr. Cushman.

EMS teams, police and firefighters will now meet to discuss how the situation was handled, assess their response and see if there is anything else they can do, in the unfortunate event they ever experience something like this again.

The Pearl Nursing Center administrator and the SEIU1199 Union, which represents most of the employees, are working to provide residents and employees with all the counseling services they need.

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