Suspect in killing of Boston doctors is arraigned at his hospital bed

Dr. Richard Field sent a friend a text message pleading for help: Somebody was in his apartment.

Minutes later, police arrived and found keys left outside the door of the doctor’s 11th-floor penthouse. When they entered, a man confronted them.

Police fired their guns and hit the man in the gut, left hand and leg. But they had arrived too late.

Field was already dead, along with Dr. Lina Bolanos, his fiancee and fellow anesthesiologist. Officers found both of them in the Boston apartment Friday night with their hands bound.

Those details emerged Monday during the arraignment of the suspected killer — a 30-year-old man named Bampumim Teixeira — at his hospital bed at Tufts Medical Center in a case that has shocked the city.

With a judge at his side, Teixeira laid with his eyes closed, occasionally nodding his head. His attorney entered a plea of not guilty to two counts of murder. He is being held without bail.

Investigators have not announced a motive in the killings.

Officials originally said that Teixeira had opened fire on the officers who arrived at the apartment Friday about 8:40 p.m., and that he probably knew his victims. But Suffolk County Dist. Atty. Daniel Conley held a news conference Monday to say that Teixeira did not shoot at police and that there was no evidence he knew the two doctors.

Police discovered a black backpack near the front door of the apartment that was filled with jewelry presumably belonging to Bolanos as well as a replica of a gun and at least one knife, prosecutors said.

Teixeira was recently released after serving nine months of a yearlong sentence for larceny. In a guilty plea last year, he admitted to passing notes to bank tellers demanding money on two separate occasions. His attorney, Steven Sack, declined to provide more information about his client.

Bolanos, 38, specialized in pediatric patients at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.

“Dr. Bolanos was an outstanding pediatric anesthesiologist and a wonderful colleague in the prime of both her career and life,� Johan Fernandez, the president of Massachusetts Eye and Ear said in a statement. “We will do all we can to support their families and our staff members who are processing this senseless tragedy and grieving an enormous loss.�

Sunil Eappen, the chief medical officer at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, worked with Bolanos over the last five years and said that she cared deeply about her patients. “She was warm and caring with both parents and the children she treated,� Eappen said in a statement. “It is desperately hard for all of us to fathom that our friend who never failed to brighten our days is no longer with us.�

Field, 49, specialized in pain management. He had been practicing medicine for 18 years, according to his biography online.

“Dr. Field was a guiding vision at North Shore Pain Management and was instrumental in the creation of this practice,� said a statement posted by his practice on Facebook. “He was a valued member of the medical community and a tremendous advocate for his patients. His tragic and sudden passing leaves an inescapable void in all of us.�

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