The
soldier behind Wednesday's deadly shooting at Fort Hood was being
evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder, and had seen no combat
while deployed in Iraq three years ago.
Also, the shooter bought his gun from the same place the 2009 Fort Hood shooter got his weapon.
Army
officials Thursday afternoon identified the killer as Spc. Ivan Lopez,
34, a Puerto Rican father of three who authorities say had no record of
misbehavior. Wednesday's tragedy at the Texas Army base left four people
dead, including the gunman, and 16 injured.
"We have very strong
evidence that he had a medical history that indicated an unstable
psychiatric or psychological condition," Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, head of
the Army's III Corps at Fort Hood, said of Lopez. "There was no
indication that he was targeting specific people."
Milley hinted
at a motive for the shooting. "There may have been a verbal altercation
with another soldier or soldiers," he said. "There is a strong
possibility that that immediately preceded the shooting." MORE: Alleged shooter was not required to register weapon STORY: Tragedy again touches Fort Hood community STORY: Military plays catch-up on PTSD STORY: 4 dead, 16 wounded in Fort Hood attack MORE: Fort Hood shooting comes less than 5 years after earlier attack MORE: '09 shooting led to Pentagon review of base security
Lopez purchased his gun on March 1.
Last
year, Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan was convicted and sentenced to
death in the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood on his fellow soldiers as
they waited inside a crowded building on the base. Thirteen died and
more than 30 were wounded, and it remains the deadliest attack on a
domestic military installation in U.S. history.
The Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Wednesday night traced the
gun used in Wednesday's attack to a local gun shop, said a federal law
enforcement official not authorized to comment publicly. The official
confirmed that the gun had been purchased at Guns Galore, the same shop
that sold a weapon to Hasan.
Lopez enlisted in the Army in June 2008 and served four months in Iraq as a truck driver.
"His
records show no wounds, no involvement — direct involvement — in
combat," said Army Secretary John McHugh, the U.S. Army's top civilian
official. "As Gen. Milley said, no record of Purple Heart or any injury
that might lead us to further investigate a battle-related TBI
(traumatic brain injury) or such."
Milley said Lopez had "self-diagnosed" a traumatic brain injury. "He was not wounded in action," Milley said.
On
Thursday, McHugh said the suspected shooter had two deployments,
including the one in Iraq. Lopez enlisted as an infantryman and later
switched his specialty to truck driver.
Lopez, who was on a
variety of prescribed drugs including Ambien, had not yet been diagnosed
for post-traumatic stress disorder. But he was also undergoing
treatment for depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance and a variety of
other issues, McHugh said.
"He was seen just last month by a
psychiatrist," McHugh said Thursday. "He was fully examined. And as of
this morning, we had no indication on the record of that examination
that there was any sign of likely violence, either to himself or to
others. No suicidal ideation."
Out of respect for Lopez's family
and the integrity of the investigation, Milley said he would not release
any more details about the soldier's medical status. He did add that it
was too early to tell if Lopez received adequate mental health
treatment.
Soldier's 'Courageous Act' Remembered as Fort Hood Begins Healing
Fort Hood Public Affairs Office via Reuters
Sergeant
First Class Daniel Ferguson, 39, of Florida, who served as a
transportation supervisor and had been deployed to Kuwait, Iraq and
Afghanistan, is pictured in this undated handout from Fort Hood Public
Affairs Office. Ferguson was one of three victims killed at the shooting
at Fort Hood.
In
a final heroic act, Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Ferguson threw his body
against the entryway of a door as a fellow soldier-turned-gunman blasted
away in a terrifying rampage at Fort Hood.
Ferguson, 39, was fatally hit in the moment he became a human shield — a sacrifice remembered in a news conference Saturday.
Ferguson's
“courageous act of blocking the door with his own body prevented
further bloodshed,” said Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas.
Also
killed in Wednesday's shooting were Sgt. Timothy Owens, 37, and Staff
Sgt. Carlos Lazaney-Rodriguez, 38. Sixteen others were wounded. Gunman
Spc. Ivan Lopez died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials
said.
Rep. Williams, along with
Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, met some of the wounded soldiers Saturday,
and commended them on their valor. Among the victims was Maj. Patrick Miller, who was shot in the stomach with Lopez's .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol.
Miller had called 911 as he tended to his own wounds.
Timothy
Wayne Owens, a counselor at Fort Hood, was known to friends as a
stand-up guy who triumphed over a hardscrabble upbringing to become an
empathetic military man, one who helped people and defused conflicts.
So,
it was no surprise to residents in his home town of Effingham, Ill., to
hear that Owens lost his life trying to calm the shooter in Wednesday’s
Fort Hood killings.
“He was a brave
man,” said Owens’s mother, Mary Muntean, 77, who said she learned that
her son had been killed as he tried to talk with Ivan Lopez, who has been identified as the man who killed three people and injured 16 in the shooting on the Army post.
Muntean
said she received a call at her Effingham home from her son’s wife,
Billy Owens, on Wednesday evening telling her that he had been shot five
times after trying to calm Lopez in a post parking lot. Military officials have
not released the names of those killed or injured or confirmed reports
of how the violence unfolded. But friends of Owens said the account
provided by his family fits the man they knew.
Among Fort Hood Victims, a Sergeant Is Killed, and a Major Is Wounded
Photo
Sgt. Timothy Owens was killed Wednesday night.Credit Courtesy of Glen Welton, via Associated Press
The
names of the victims of the shooting in Fort Hood began to come out on
Thursday, released by relatives and by officials offering their
condolences.
In
Effingham, Ill., family members told The Associated Press that Army
Sgt. Timothy Owens was one of the three soldiers killed Wednesday in a
mass shooting by Specialist Ivan Antonio Lopez. Sixteen others were
wounded in the shooting. The Army has not released a list of the
victims, pending notification of relatives.
The
mother of Sergeant Owens, Mary Muntean, 77, of Effingham, told The
Associated Press that she had learned of her son’s death in a telephone
call with her daughter-in-law.
Unable
to reach her son, she called his wife, Billie Owens, who first said he
was in the hospital. Before long, Sergeant Owens’s wife called back, and
Mrs. Muntean had her worst fears confirmed. “She said, ‘Mom, I want to
tell you how sorry I am. Tim’s gone,' ” Mrs. Muntean said, according to
The A.P. “I broke down.”
Sergeant
Owens dropped out of high school in 1995. But his mother said he earned
his high school equivalency after joining the Army in 2004.
Photo
Maj. Patrick Miller was wounded in the shootings.
A
friend and former roommate, Paul Eatherton, said Sergeant Owens, whose
family moved back to Effingham from Missouri in the mid-1990s, worked at
Pizza Hut and studied tae kwon do at a local gym. Mr. Eatherton, a
martial arts instructor at the time, said Sergeant Owens got his black
belt and started teaching at a gym in Effingham.
“He
was the best student I’d ever seen or known,” Mr. Eatherton said. “We’d
go to tournaments, and he’d bring first places home every time.”
He
said Sergeant Owens, who was in his mid-30s, had recently signed up for
another six years in the Army. “I think he was going to be a lifer,” he
said. He said he had not talked to Sergeant Owens for several months,
but when he heard news of the shooting, he texted him immediately. He
got no reply. “That really worried me,” he said.
The
commander of Fort Hood, Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley, said in an afternoon
news conference, that nine of the 16 people wounded in the attack were
taken to Scott & White Memorial Hospital in nearby Temple, Tex., for
treatment. Three were upgraded to serious condition on Thursday.
Hospital officials said doctors had operated on two patients, a man and a
woman, who had been shot in the abdomen and neck. The third person had
an abdominal wound. The other victims taken there were discharged.
Gunman Had ‘Clean Record,’ With No Violent Sign, Officials Say
Photo
Specialist Ivan Lopez served in Iraq but did not see combat.
Specialist
Ivan Antonio Lopez had seen a military psychiatrist as recently as last
month. He was being treated for depression and anxiety, and had been
prescribed Ambien to help him sleep. He had come back from a four-month
deployment to Iraq in 2011 and told superiors he had suffered a
traumatic head injury there. But military officials said he had never
seen combat, and there was no record of any combat-related injury. He
was being evaluated for possible post-traumatic stress disorder.
Still,
military officials said, they had seen nothing to indicate that
Specialist Lopez, 34 — who killed three people and himself and wounded
16 others on Wednesday in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Tex. — was
violent or suicidal.
“He
had a clean record,” Secretary of the Army John McHugh said Thursday
morning in testimony before a Senate panel in Washington. “No
outstanding bad marks for any kinds of major misbehaviors that we’re yet
aware of.”
Lt.
Gen. Mark A. Milley, the Fort Hood commander, said Thursday at a news
conference that there were “very strong indications” that there had been
a “verbal altercation” between Specialist Lopez and one or more other
soldiers in the minutes before the shooting started, but the authorities
were still investigating what role, if any, that played in the attack.
Photo
Before joining the Army, Specialist Lopez was in the Puerto Rico National Guard.Credit Puerto Rico National Guard, via Reuters
“We
have very strong evidence looking into his medical history that
indicated an unstable psychiatric condition,” General Milley said.
Friends
from his hometown in Puerto Rico said that Specialist Lopez was angry
with the Army when he returned home for his mother’s funeral in
November. Ismael Gonzalez, a former schoolmate who had kept in contact
with Specialist Lopez on Facebook, said the soldier was very upset that
he had initially been given only 24 hours to attend the funeral.
In
addition, Mr. Gonzalez said, Specialist Lopez, who was earning $28,000 a
year, told him that he was “in a precarious economic situation” trying
to support his family in Texas and two children in Puerto Rico from his
first marriage. And he was angry that the Army would not allow him to
move his family onto the base at Fort Hood, Mr. Gonzalez said.
None of this had found its way into Specialist Lopez’s official record, though.
“This
was an experienced soldier,” said Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the Army’s
chief of staff. “He spent actually nine years in the Puerto Rico
National Guard before coming on active duty, so he’s a very experienced
soldier.”
Those
who knew Specialist Lopez as a young man, obsessed with the high school
band, were even more stunned to learn what he was suspected of doing.
“I
cannot believe you are speaking about the same guy,” said Sgt. Maj.
Nelson Bigas, one of Specialist Lopez’s superiors in the National Guard.
“He was the most responsible, obedient, humble person, and one of the
most skillful guys on the line.”
For
a year beginning in 2006, Specialist Lopez was deployed with his guard
unit on the Sinai Peninsula, watching the border between Egypt and the
Gaza Strip.
But,
the authorities say, it was Specialist Lopez who went into Guns Galore
in Killeen, Tex., near Fort Hood on March 1 and bought the .45-caliber
Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistol that was used in the shootings
on Wednesday.
It
was the same gun store where Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army major, had
bought at least one of the weapons used in a 2009 mass shooting on the
base.
Photo
Specialist Lopez in an image from Facebook.
So
information was emerging slowly on Thursday about Mr. Lopez. He was
raised in the small fishing village of Guayanilla on the southern coast
of Puerto Rico, about an hour and a half from San Juan. While there, he
attended the School of Asunción Rodríguez de Sala, where he was active
in the band and an enthusiastic drummer.
In
1999, he joined the National Guard, where he also played in the band.
Later, he joined the Puerto Rico Police Department and became a member
of its band. Officials said his record with the force was clean, with no
disciplinary or behavioral problems.
His
main job for the police was visiting schools and hospitals around
Puerto Rico to give demonstrations on his percussion instruments. After
he finished, other police officers would speak to the students or
patients about gun violence, drugs and bullying, said Jeann Correa, the
director of the unit for which he worked. His pay was $2,400 a month.
In
2010, getting a special leave from the police force, he shifted into
the Army as a private first class and was quickly promoted to specialist
and stationed with the First Armored Division at Fort Bliss in El Paso,
Tex. He was an infantryman there but his military record shows that in
November, because of a medical condition identified as plantar
fasciitis, a painful foot ailment, he moved to Fort Leonard Wood in
Missouri, where he trained to become a truck driver. In February, he was
posted to Fort Hood in that capacity.
Vets, Docs Worry Fort Hood Shootings Will Deepen PTSD Stigma
By Bill Briggs
The
word “PTSD” had barely left the mouth of Fort Hood’s commander late
Wednesday when, across the nation, many veterans with those symptoms and
doctors who treat the malady understood they faced a renewed battle: a
resurgence of the stigma that comes with that diagnosis.
The
Fort Hood tragedy –- 16 wounded and four killed, including identified
shooter Ivan Lopez, a soldier being evaluated for PTSD –- is precisely
the type of event that makes combat veterans cringe. Many worry they’ll
be further mislabeled as dangerous time bombs, as the next to snap, and
that post-traumatic stress will again be misrepresented and
misunderstood as a condition that sparks public, violent outbursts.
“That
is not what post-traumatic stress is or what it does,” said Ingrid
Herrera-Yee, a clinical psychologist in the Washington, D.C. area who
treats veterans diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other
mental health issues as well as their family members and civilians. Her
husband, Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Ian Yee, spent three combat
deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Yes,
there is anger and irritability (associated with PTSD), but it’s
usually internalized. You’re more likely to see it as someone who is
withdrawn, anxious and numb, who’s lost interest in life. Some veterans
explain it to me this way: ‘The last thing you want is to go out and
lash out,” said Herrera-Yee, adding: “Just like any victims of a trauma
–- rape or domestic violence -– they can become fearful of their
surroundings, but they’re not going to react angrily toward their
surroundings. For them, it’s all about avoidance.”
"You’re
more likely to see it as someone who is withdrawn, anxious and numb,
who’s lost interest in life. Some veterans explain it to me this way:
‘The last thing you want is to go out and lash out.'"
For
years, Pentagon brass and branch commanders have urged troops and
veterans to seek mental-health help if they feel the need, while
repeating the message that, if they do see a doctor, they will not be
viewed as weak but as strong. That campaign seems to have finally dented
the macho-military mantra that every soldier can handle his or her own
business. Many veterans are turning to doctors to begin addressing
post-service anxiety issues, often fueled by repeated or long
deployments.
An
Iraq war veteran who was grappling with mental health issues opened
fire at Fort Hood, Tex., in an attack that left four people dead and 16
wounded Wednesday afternoon, according to preliminary law enforcement
and military reports. The gunfire sent tremors of fear across a
sprawling Army post still reeling from one of the worst mass shootings
in U.S. history.
Many basic details about the shooting remained
unclear in the chaotic hours after the first calls for help around 4
p.m., but senior U.S. law enforcement officials said the incident did
not appear to be linked to any foreign terrorist organizations. The
shooter was among those who died, the officials said.
The
officials identified the shooter as Army Spec. Ivan Lopez, 34, a
military truck driver, who was dressed in his standard-issue green
camouflage uniform. Lopez opened fire in two locations on the vast
central Texas post, inside a building housing the 1st Medical Brigade
and in a facility belonging to the 49th Transportation Battalion.
Police
spent Wednesday night searching his apartment in Killeen, the city that
abuts the Army facility. Gen. Mark A. Milley, the commander of Fort
Hood, said the soldier, whom he did not identify by name, served four
months in Iraq in 2011.
Milley said the shooter “had behavioral
health and mental health issues.” He said the soldier, who self-reported
a traumatic brain injury and was taking anti-depressants, had been
under examination to determine whether he had post-traumatic stress
disorder. “We are digging deep into his background,” Milley said.
Milley
said the soldier opened fire with a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson
semiautomatic pistol that was purchased recently but was not authorized
to be brought on the post. He was eventually confronted by a female
military police officer. He put his hands up but then pulled out a gun
from under his jacket. “She engaged,” Milley said, and then the soldier
put the gun to his head and shot himself.
The shooting was the
third major gun attack at a U.S. military installation in five years,
leaving the nation grappling with the prospect of yet more flag-draped
funerals for troops killed on the homefront. A government contractor
went on a shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard in September,
leaving 12 people dead. In 2009, Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan opened fire on
a group of soldiers at Fort Hood preparing to deploy to Iraq and
Afghanistan, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30.
Doctors
at the Scott & White hospital in Temple, Tex., said Wednesday that
they have treated eight of the wounded and that one more was on the way.
Three of the patients were in critical condition in the ICU, and five
were in serious condition. Seven of them were male, and one was female.
Their injuries ranged from mild to life-threatening, a majority of them
caused by single-gunshot wounds to the neck, chest and abdomen.
President
Obama said he was “heartbroken that something like this might have
happened again.” Speaking during a fundraising trip to Chicago, he
pledged “to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”
A shooting at the Fort Hood military installation in Texas left at least four people dead, including the gunman, and more than a dozen were injured, according to authorities.
The gunman, identified by multiple government sources as Army Specialist Ivan Lopez, took his own life, officials said.
Lopez,
33, of Kileen, Tex., was wearing an Army uniform at the time of the
shooting, Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Homeland
Security Committee, told reporters.
Four
people were taken to Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Tex.,
and another two are being brought there, said Glen Couchman, the
facility’s chief medical officer. Their injuries that “range from stable
to quite critical,” he said.
The installation was locked down for
much of the afternoon and into the evening after the shooting before
being lifted shortly before 9 p.m. local time.
Speaking in Chicago, President Obama said his administration was following the shooting closely.
“I want to just assure all of us we are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened,” he said. “We’re heartbroken something like this might have happened again.”
The base was the site of a shooting in 2009 that ultimately killed 13 people and wounded another 32, the worst mass murder at a military installation in U.S. history. Nidal Hasan was sentenced to death last year for the shooting after being found guilty of premeditated and attempted premeditated murder.
SHOOTING SITUATION STILL ACTIVE, Multiple Gunned Down
FORT
HOOD (April 2, 2014) At least one person is dead after a shooting late
Wednesday afternoon on Fort Hood, a post spokesman confirmed.
Others were injured in the shooting, but the spokesman didn't say how many.
The gunman is still at large and the spokesman said the incident is being treated as an active-shooter situation.
Warning sirens sounded late Wednesday afternoon at Fort Hood because of the incident.
A
man who said he was a witness told News 10 that about 20 shots were
fired in a post motor pool in the area of Motor Pool Road and Tank
Destroyer Boulevard.
He said at least three people were hit.
He said the three victims were taken to a hospital.
The post was on lockdown as a result of the shooting, which occurred at around 4:25 p.m.
People on post were told to stay indoors.
A message that scrolled across the top of the post's website said, "Shelter in place immediately. This is not a test."
The
1st Calvary Division, which is based at Fort Hood, sent a Twitter alert
telling people on base to close doors and stay away from windows.
Texas
A&M Central Texas in Killeen canceled evening and night classes
Wednesday at Fort Hood and at its Fairway building because of the
situation on post.
First responders from surrounding communities were headed to the post.
Bell County sheriff's deputies and Department Public Safety troopers were also responding, sheriff's Lt. Donnie Adams said.
Media were being directed to the post's Visitor's Center.
On
Nov. 5, 2009, Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire at Fort
Hood's Soldier Readiness Center, killing 12 soldiers and one civilian
and wounding 29 others before two Fort Hood civilian police officers
shot him.
Fort Hood Public Affairs Office via Reuters
