Bush doctor’s killer commits suicide: US

A Texas manhunt for a retired cop who killed the former doctor of ex-president George H.W. Bush in broad daylight ended on Friday with the suicide of the suspect. Heart surgeon Mark Hausknecht was murdered in a brazen shooting two weeks ago, in what police believe was the result of a more than 20-year grudge held by Joseph James Pappas.

The 65-year-old cardiologist at Houston’s Methodist Hospital treated former president Bush in 2000. He also treated Pappas’s mother more than two decades ago. She died while in the doctor’s care. That is the only connection between the two men that might explain why Pappas methodically planned the killing and then went on the run, according to police. He was confronted by two officers Friday morning and committed suicide, Houston’s police chief said. Based on surveillance images, police believe Pappas was on a bicycle just behind Hausknecht on July 20, as the doctor was bicycling to work.

The former cop then allegedly passed the doctor on the road, turned and fired two shots. The killing -- which investigators early on suspected was targeted -- rocked Houston’s sizeable medical community. Hausknecht worked on the campus of the Texas Medical Center, a sprawling complex that encompasses multiple hospitals.