A former doctor accused of killing a Yale University physician will appear for a hearing on Monday to determine whether he is fit to stand trial in a five-year-old murder case that shocked the medical community as well as the local community.
Lishan Wang, a 49-year-old Chinese nationalist from Beijing, is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Dr. Vajinder Toor outside Toor's Branford home in April 2010.
Toor was walking to his car around 8 a.m. that Monday morning to go to work at Yale-New Haven Hospital when gunshots rang out.
Dr. Toor's pregnant wife and then 3-year-old son were inside their home at the time and she told authorities she ran outside when she heard the shots.
Wang is also accused of shooting at the pregnant woman, but she was not injured.
Police said the shooting stemmed from a dispute the men had two years earlier while working together at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Wang accused the hospital and supervisors at Kingsbrook of discrimination and made allegations about "unnecessary medical testing," according to court records. The matter went to human resources, which determined that Wang misunderstood Toor and his information was inaccurate.
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In May 2008, Toor accused Wang of ignoring pages and calls from hospital staff while he was on duty and that Toor and nurses could not find him for hours.
Wang defended himself and after what is referred to as a “heated argument,” Toor accused Wang of threatening his safety, court documents state. A week later, Wang was suspended and later terminated.
When police stopped Wang's minivan soon after the shooting, they found a photo of Toor and a Google map to his home, police said at the time.
New Haven Superior Court Judge Thomas O'Keefe Jr. ordered in April that Wang, who represented himself during a hearing that month, be sent to Connecticut Valley Hospital for treatment. He was originally deemed incompetent to stand trial, but his doctors said they believed that could be changed with treatment.
On Monday, he'll appear before a judge for a competency hearing to determine if he can stand trial.
If Wang is declared mentally fit, it's not clear how soon a trial could begin.
