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Tag: Ivan Lopez

  • Fort Hood Shooting Suspect Showed No Risk of Violence

    Fort Hood gunman Ivan Lopez may have had a verbal altercation with a fellow soldier before he opened fire, killing three people and wounding 16 others, before turning the gun on himself at the army base on Wednesday, but otherwise showed no recent signs of violence, authorities said Thursday. 

    Investigators are looking into the possibility that Lopez had words with a solder in an incident “that immediately preceded the shooting,” said Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, the post’s commanding general.

    “We’re trying to figure out what the trigger event was,” Milley said.

    Investigators are working to determine whether the shooting was pre-meditated, Milley told reporters.

    While the trigger for the shootings is still unclear, investigators believe Lopez’ unstable mental health history is a key factor.

    “We have very strong evidence that he had a medical history that indicates an unstable psychiatric or psychological condition,” Milley said Thursday.

    “(We’re) going through all records to ensure that is, in fact, correct. But we believe that to be the fundamental underlying causal factor,” Milley said.

    Though nothing is being ruled out by investigators at this time, there is no evidence that the shooting was linked to terrorism, national or international, Milley explained.

    Army Secretary John McHugh said the soldier saw no combat during a four-month deployment to Iraq as a truck driver from August to December 2011.

    Lopez saw a psychiatrist in March and showed no “sign of any likely violence either to himself or others,” McHugh said.

    His record shows “no involvement with extremist organizations of any kind,” McHugh added.

    Lopez was armed with a .45 caliber Smith & Wesson and turned the gun on himself when confronted by a female military police officer in a parking lot of the base, near Killeen, Texas, on Wednesday. Lopez, who served four months in Iraq in 2011, was married with four children and had arrived at Fort Hood in February.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Fort Hood Shooting Leaves 4 Dead; Gunman Sought Mental Help

    An Iraq War veteran being treated for mental illness opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, on Wednesday afternoon, leaving four people dead, including the gunman, and 16 people wounded.

    The soldier, identified as 34-year-old soldier Ivan Lopez, turned the gun on himself and died of a self-inflicted wound after opening fire at the military base where more than a dozen people were slain in an attack in 2009, according to authorities.

    Lopez was identified by U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

    “We do not know a motive,” Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley told reporters at a press conference Wednesday night.

    “But we know this soldier to have behavioral health and mental health issues,” Milley said.

    Milley also said authorities did not believe the attack was related to terrorism, but that they are not ruling anything out at this time.

    Lopez, who was being treated for depression and anxiety, went into two buildings on the base and opened fire before he was confronted by military police, Milley said.

    The shooting occurred at approximately 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Emergency personnel, the FBI and SWAT teams were called in to the base following the shooting.

    The shooter used a .45 caliber Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol that had been purchased recently, Milley added.

    Nine of the victims in the shooting were hospitalized with gunshot wounds at Scott & White hospital in Temple, Texas. As of early Thursday morning, three victims were listed as being in critical condition.

    According to Milley, all of the shooting victims were members of the military.

    Lopez served for four months in Iraq in 2011, and was undergoing an evaluation for post traumatic stress disorder, according to Milley. Lopez arrived in Fort Hood, one of the largest U.S. Army bases, in February from another military base.

    In 2009, 13 people were killed and more than 30 wounded in a mass shooting at Fort Hood by then-Maj. Nidal Hasan, an army psychiatrist. A U.S. Senate report following the incident described it as the worst attack on American soil since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, The FBI said that though Hasan expressed anti-American sentiments prior to the shooting, he had had no ties to terrorist groups.

    Hassan was sentenced to death after admitting to the shooting during his court martial hearing in August 2013, and is now on death row.

    “We’re following it closely. The situation is fluid right now,” President Obama told reporters in Chicago.  He said that investigators would “get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”

    “We’re heartbroken something like this might have happened again,” the president said.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Fort Hood Shooting Not Linked to Terrorism

    A senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson has stated that the shooting that occurred Wednesday at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas was a “soldier on soldier” incident, and that no links to terrorism have yet been suspected. The Homeland Security source added that there was “currently no (counter terrorism) nexus” and that the shooter killed himself.

    The shooter has been identified as Army Specialist Ivan Lopez, who was incidentally present at the scene of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting which killed 13. Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that the “knowledge I have is he (Lopez) was a truck driver.”

    Officials at the Scott & White Temple Hospital in Temple, Texas, said that the facility had received four patients from the shooting and that another two were being driven in. The conditions of those injured ranged from stable to critical, and included gunshot wounds to the abdomen, chest, neck and extremities.

    An employee of the Fort Hood Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center stated that two patients were being treated in that facility, and that more were expected to arrive. A witness outside the hospital told Fox News, “It’s chaos. I see lots of ambulances coming in. There are helicopters everywhere.”

    The Fort Hood Press Center has issued and alert that the facility is still on lock down, and posted to Twitter that “All personnel on post are asked to shelter in place.”

    Fort Hood added an update on the shooting via its Facebook page:

    UPDATE: Fort Hood’s Directorate of Emergency Services has an initial report that a shooter is dead but this is unconfirmed. The injured personnel are being transported to Carl R. Darnall Medical Center and other local hospitals. Numerous law enforcement agencies are in support and on the scene. The number of injured are not confirmed at this time. No further details are known at this time. There has been a shooting at Fort Hood and injuries are reported. Emergency crews are on the scene. No further details are known at this time.

    President Obama said the U.S. government is doing everything it can to make sure all personnel are secure. “We’re heartbroken that something like this might’ve happened again,” Obama said.

    Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel comments on the attack:

    In 2009, U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, a psychiatrist who had converted to radical Islam while serving in the military, killed 13 people and shot dozens more at Fort Hood. Hasan, who represented himself at a military trial, was sentenced to death in August.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons