Contributed Photo
Dr. Toor and son.
(Updated Friday 7:54 a.m. with report.) He didn’t technically confess, but the man accused of stalking and murdering a Yale doctor placed himself at the scene of the crime and told police he spoke to the victim moments before the shooting. He also said he might commit suicide.
The alleged killer, Dr. Lishan Wang, made those remarks to Branford police when they arrested him Monday, according to a newly released report. The police arrested him for allegedly shooting to death Yale doctor Vanjinder Toor in the parking lot of his quiet condo complex.
The four-page police report details Dr. Wang’s conversation with two officers, Detective Daniel Travisano and Officer Brian McGinnis, after he arrived at the police station following Monday’s killing. The interview took place while other officers interviewed more than two dozen witnesses at the scene, including two from whom they took sworn statements. The two provided information describing Dr. Wang and his van.
Click here to read the report.
In the report, Dr. Wang is not specific about the nature of his final conversation with Dr. Toor, to whom he referred as “Dr. Vanjander.” Dr. Wang said he did not know if Vanjander was his first or last name. In the context of their conversation, Detective Travisano said Dr. Wang made a reference “to having a gun in a bag.”
It was not clear, Travisano went on, “if he was indicating that he had the gun with him in the bag during the conversation with the victim or he was explaining that the gun remained in a bag in his vehicle.”
Pool Photo Douglas Healy
Dr. Wang (pictured above in court Tuesday) spoke with officers after they informed him of his constitutional right to remain silent and have an attorney present. The interview was videotaped. Wang said he understood his rights but also told police he was willing to talk, “but requested we attempt to obtain an attorney for his children,” according to the report.
“Being unsure of Mr. Wang’s request, I again asked him if he was willing to talk to this writer and he indicated that he was. He also reiterated that he wanted an attorney for his children,” Detective Travisano wrote. “At that point, he was brought to the Detective Division’s interview room.”
The interview began at 8:58 a.m, about an hour after Dr. Toor was killed. At one point, Dr. Wang told the detectives “I may kill myself.” Police placed Dr. Wang in protective custody, meaning he was being watched for his own safety.
Dr. Wang also told Officer McGinnis that he was sorry for what happened at the condo.
He explained that he had found Dr. Toor’s address via a Google search. He said he did not know what time he arrived at the condo because he did not have a watch “but that it was pretty light out.” He told police he did not try to go into the Toor house.
When asked where “Dr. Vanjander” was when he was shot, Wang said he was “outside of the car and that he (the victim) was not far away from his car. ”
Then the report states: “According to Mr. Wang, he does not know why he wanted to see him.”
Police say that Dr. Lishan Wang methodically set out to seek revenge against Dr. Toor and two other physicians whom he blamed for ending his medical career at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn. Dr. Wang himself entered no plea when he had his first court appearance on Tuesday.
Dr. Wang was fired from the hospital in July 2008 after an encounter with Dr. Toor and other physicians. He told police in the interview that at one time he was accused “of threatening Vanjander and was also accused of using a pen and poking him in the eye” during this incident.
He went on to tell police the issue that spawned the threat was that he did not promptly return to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital after “Vanjander paged him.” An investigation ensued and he was fired.
He told police that Monday was the first time he saw Vanjander since “he was released from the hospital two years ago.”
He also told police about the lawsuit he filed against the hospital.
The police say he drove from Marietta, Ga., to Branford, probably arriving Saturday or Sunday. Along the way he stopped for gas. Police also found four lottery tickets, including one purchased in Connecticut.
In his car he carried three guns, 1,000 rounds of ammunition and in his right jacket pocket that day he carried two fully loaded semi automatic ammo magazines, according to police.
Later his 1996 Burgundy Dodge minivan allegedly produced more incriminating evidence: a wig, a hammer, a gun that was cocked back and ready for firing, a knife and assorted clothing. Police also found bullet casings at the scene of the murder that matched the bullets in the magazine from a 9 mm Ruger that police found in the van.
Not only did Dr. Wang have photographs of Dr. Toor along with Google directions to his home, according to police, but he also had the photographs and addresses of the other two doctors. These three doctors were central to Wang’s dismissal at the end of his second year of residency at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn in 2008. Police say in another report that Wang was dismissed from the program “for conduct unbecoming a resident.” Police immediately tracked down the physicians to make sure they were okay.
Detective Travisano noted that he spoke with a supervisor from the hospital. The supervisor, whose name was blacked out on the report when it was released Thursday afternoon, said that “Mr Wang had threatened [Dr. Toor], as well as other employees.”
At about 10:46 a.m. Monday, after Dr. Wang discussed his conversation with Dr. Toor and made the reference to a gun, Lt. William Carroll, the chief of Branford detectives, advised Travisano to inform Dr. Wang that he was under arrest for murder and attempted murder. Dr. Wang is charged with shooting at Dr. Toor’s pregnant wife, Parneeta Sidhu, who ran outside when she heard shots. He missed hitting her.
“What are you doing to my husband?,” she shouted at Dr. Wang.
Immediately after the charges were read, Detective Travisano and Officer McGinnis obtained Dr. Wang’s consent for a gunshot residue test. They performed the test on both his arms, they said in the report.
After Detective Travisano informed Dr. Wang that the Chinese Consulate was being notified, and he indicated he understood, Wang then said he wanted an attorney, according to the report. At that point all questioning stopped.
Lt. Carroll said Dr. Wang had no trouble communicating with the interviewers and they with him in English. Lt. Carroll said he was surprised to learn that his arraignment in New Haven Superior Court was delayed because he wanted a Mandarin Chinese interpreter at his side.
Dr. Wang also told police that he was Chinese citizen who came to America on a student visa but obtained his permanent resident legal status — or green card — in 2004.
After being fired from the hospital he worked for about six months with a Queens medical group and then found a one-year position as a post doctoral fellow at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Ga. He and his wife and three children lived in Marietta, Ga.
Dr. Wang resigned from Morehouse in February 2010, a spokeswoman said. She would not provide further information. He was unemployed at the time of his arrest. Police found a Morehouse identification card in his van.
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Thanks, Marcia, for your consistently excellent reporting on events of local and national concern which take place in Branford.....remy zimmermann