Residents love, rely on Pine Hills doctor shot in robbery, but want him in safer neighborhood

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A physician shot during an armed robbery of the Florida Primary Care Center in Pine Hills on Tuesday continued to recover Thursday.

Two masked men barged into the office on the 2000 block of Pine Hills Road with guns and demanded money, investigators said.

Deputies said the victim, Dr. Ashok Khanna, 63, who runs the office, complied with the robbers’ demands, but one of the robbers shot him in the leg anyway.

Residents were shocked by the shooting and now, some are telling the doctor to move his practice to a better area of town, regardless of how much they rely on him.

"What he needs to do is pack up and move to a different area," patient Lavel Hallums said. "Because it's dangerous over here. He's in there by himself; he needs more people in there with him."

Khanna was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

Calvin Lang, a longtime friend of the doctor, said he and Khanna volunteer for a nonprofit that supports children and cancer patients.

“He takes care of those kids. He takes care of the community,” Lang said.

He called the injured doctor before he knew what had happened and couldn't believe what Khanna said, Lang said.

"I called him on his phone and said, 'Hey doc, what's up?'" Lang said. "He said, 'Oh, well, I got robbed.'"

"'What do you mean you got robbed?'" Lang remembered saying. "He said, 'Yes, and I got shot ... I'm in the hospital now.'"

The two patients and a child who were inside the building were not injured, deputies said.

"This man has never did anything to nobody. He's been my doctor (for) almost 10 years, and he saved my life. He saved my life," Hallums said. "He loves the community. He loves helping people.

"He doesn't look at people in the neighborhood as bad people, he looks at us as human beings."

Lang said many people rely on Khanna.

“He (is) a pillar in the community. Anyone can be coming in that needed some service was never turned away,” Lang said.

Area residents were shocked that the gunmen picked Khanna's office to rob.

"I can say this here, 'Whoever done that, shame on you, and God's gonna get you because it don't make no sense. Because he didn't deserve that. He helps everybody around here," Hallums said.

The office has surveillance cameras, but it's unclear if the cameras caught the robbery.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office asks anyone with information on the robbery to call Crimeline.

Cox Media Group