Police release names in murder-suicide at hospital lot

LANSING – A domestic dispute in a hospital parking lot left two people from Lansing dead Tuesday morning.

Police are calling the incident a murder-suicide. They said Johnnie Conner Jr., a 44-year-old Lansing man, killed Bessie Saline Rodriguez, a 43-year-old Lansing woman, shortly after 7 a.m. and then killed himself in a rear parking lot at McLaren Greater Lansing's

orthopedic hospital off South Pennsylvania Avenue. Police recovered a firearm at the scene.

Rodriguez worked at the hospital. On its Facebook page, the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 459 Nurses group sent "thoughts and prayers ... to the family of our member who was tragically killed."

Few other details were released, such as the relationship between the two or what sparked the domestic incident. But Lansing police Public Information Officer Robert Merritt said more information may be released Wednesday.

"Detectives are still trying to work through some things," Merritt said Tuesday afternoon. Earlier, he said police are not looking for other suspects.

"We're confident that we have all accounted parties involved," he said.

Police were called just after 7 a.m. and found both individuals unresponsive in the parking lot. Conner was pronounced dead at the scene and the woman died later at another local hospital.

Hospital officials also released little information.

McLaren Greater Lansing spokesman Brian Brown said the hospital was briefly locked down after the shooting was reported, but no patients were in jeopardy and no patients had to be relocated. There were 35 employees and 21 patients at the hospital at the time of the shooting.

In a statement Tuesday, McLaren Greater Lansing President and CEO Rick Wright said counselors and crisis support was available "to help our employees and others affected."

"As we continue our mission of healing the public, we will also be working to heal internally after this significant loss," Wright said in the statement. "We ask that you join us in keeping the family in your thoughts at this difficult time."

The murder-suicide was Lansing's third shooting incident in four days.

Police are looking for two male suspects in connection with the shooting of a 25-year-old man Saturday evening near a gas station in the 3400 block of South Waverly Road.

The victim was shot in the stomach and arm after two men approached him as he waited in his car, police said. He was reported in stable condition at a local hospital.

On Sunday afternoon, a 25-year-old Lansing man was found lying in the 4900 block of Woodlyn Drive, near Jolly Road, with a gunshot wound to the chest.

A 30-year-old Lansing man has been charged with attempted murder, carjacking and three other felony charges in that incident.