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On Wednesday, April 2, 2014, a
shooting spree A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders in a short time, often in multiple locations. There are different opinions about what durations of time a killing spree may take place in. The United States ...
was perpetrated at several locations on the Fort Hood (now
Fort Cavazos Fort Cavazos is a United States Army post located near Killeen, Texas. The post is currently named after Gen. Richard E. Cavazos, a native Texan and the US Army’s first Hispanic four-star general. The post is located halfway between Austi ...
) military base near
Killeen, Texas Killeen is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Bell County. According to the 2020 census, its population was 153,095, making it the 19th-most populous city in Texas and the largest of the three principal cities of Bell County. It is ...
. Four people, including the gunman, were killed while 14 additional people were injured; 12 by gunshot wounds. The shooter, 34-year-old Army Specialist Ivan Lopez-Lopez, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.


Shootings

Immediately prior to the shooting, Lopez went to the 49th Transportation Battalion administrative office where he tried to obtain a ten-day leave form so he could attend to "family matters". However, he was informed that he would have to come back later to retrieve it, sparking a verbal altercation between him and several other soldiers. The request was ultimately denied because Lopez had already secured housing in an apartment in Killeen. Lopez then went outside to smoke a cigarette. At approximately 4:00 p.m., he returned and opened fire with a .45-caliber
Smith & Wesson M&P The Smith & Wesson M&P (Military and Police) is a polymer-Receiver (firearms), framed, short recoil operated, locked breech semi-automatic pistol introduced in the summer of 2005 by the American company Smith & Wesson. Most variants use a Recoil ...
pistol A pistol is a type of handgun, characterised by a gun barrel, barrel with an integral chamber (firearms), chamber. The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the Englis ...
inside the same building, injuring three soldiersPFCWilfred Sanchez, Sgt.Jonathan Westbrook, and SFCWarren Hardnettall of whom had been involved in the altercation with Lopez. Lopez also killed Sgt.First Class Daniel Ferguson, who was attempting to barricade a lockless conference room door to prevent Lopez from gaining entry and harming anyone inside. Lopez then got into his car and drove slowly to a motor pool building to which he had been assigned, firing at two soldiers and wounding one of them along the way on 73rd Street. Upon reaching the building, Lopez fired at a soldier inside the office, but missed her and grazed the head of another soldier. He then killed Sgt. Timothy Owens when Sgt. Owens approached him and tried to talk him down, and wounded another soldier. He then moved on to the building's vehicle bay area, where he injured two soldiers, after which his weapon misfired. Lopez then proceeded to the 1st Medical Brigade headquarters in his car. Along the way, he fired a round into a car occupied by two soldiers, wounding the passenger. Reaching the intersection of 73rd Street and Motorpool Road, Lopez shot at two other soldiers, but missed both of them. Reaching the medical building, Lopez shot and wounded 1st Lt. John Arroyo Jr., in the throat as he was walking outside in the western parking lot. He then entered the building and fatally shot a soldier at the main entrance desk, Staff Sgt. Carlos Lazaney-Rodriguez; he also wounded two other soldiers inside. Then, Lopez walked down the main hallway, wounded MAJ Patrick W. Miller, shooting him point blank in the abdomen, and exited through a doorway. Approximately eight minutes after the shooting first started, Lopez drove to the parking lot of another building, Building 39002, where he was confronted by an unidentified military police officer, with whom he had a verbal exchange. When he brandished his weapon, the officer fired a shot at him that missed. Lopez responded by committing suicide, shooting himself in the right of the head. Two medics from 1st Medical Brigade, whom the officer was originally speaking with, began to perform medical aid along with the officer to Lopez before they assisted in providing aid to the wounded. A total of 34 rounds were fired during the shooting spree: eleven at the administrative office, nine at the motor pool building, five at the medical building, and nine from inside his car. It was later revealed that Lopez, who was in uniform at the time of the shooting, wasn't authorized to carry a concealed firearm.


Victims

Three people were killed in the shooting, excluding the gunman. They were identified as:


Aftermath

During the shooting, the Bell County Communications Center dispatched deputies and troopers from the
Texas Department of Public Safety Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous state in the South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and has an international border wi ...
to the nearby post after receiving reports of an "active shooter", sheriff's Lt. Donnie Adams said.
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
spokeswoman Michelle Lee said its agents were also headed to the scene. The base confirmed the shooting in a brief statement posted online on April 2, 2014. On its
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feed and
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page, Fort Hood officials ordered everyone on base to "
shelter in place Shelter-in-place (SIP; also known as a shelter-in-place warning, Specific Area Message Encoding, SAME code SPW) is the act of seeking safety within the building one already occupies, rather than emergency evacuation, evacuating the area or seeking ...
" during the shooting. All of the injured victims were taken to
Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center The Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center is a United States Department of Defense medical facility at Fort Cavazos, Texas. It provides medical care to servicemembers and their families, along with veterans and their dependents, in and around the larg ...
, for initial treatment and stabilization. Once they were stabilized they were then transferred to
Scott & White Memorial Hospital Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sas ...
where they received further care. As of April 10, twelve of the sixteen wounded had been released from the hospitals and returned to duty, while the other four remained hospitalized in stable condition. Reacting to the incident, President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
said at a fundraiser in Chicago that he was left "heartbroken" and assured that the events would be investigated. The base was previously the scene of a mass shooting in 2009, in which 13 people were killed and more than 30 wounded. One week after the shooting, Obama and First Lady
Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama ( Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Stat ...
traveled to Fort Hood to attend a ceremony honoring the victims. On April 16, discussion was renewed over if soldiers should be allowed to carry concealed firearms on military bases in Texas and other states. On January 23, 2015, the Army concluded from an investigation into the shooting that there was no indication of a possibility of violent behavior from Lopez through his medical and personnel records. A report on the investigation cited that Lopez's commanders knew very little of his personal difficulties and would have provided him with help had he disclosed these difficulties. It also highlighted gaps in information sharing, as Lopez's supervisors believed they were unable to obtain his personal information due to federal
medical privacy Medical privacy, or health privacy, is the practice of maintaining the security and confidentiality of patient records. It involves both the conversational discretion of health care providers and the security of medical records. The terms can also ...
laws. Previously, in the wake of the aforementioned 2009 Fort Hood shooting, information sharing regarding medical history was among 78 recommendations suggested to identify the risk of violent behavior. However, this recommendation was not implemented due to "constraints on exchanging information between military and civilian behavioral health care providers". The 2015 report recommended improvements with the level of contact between commanders and their newly assigned soldiers, and that soldiers should register personally owned weapons with their commanders.


Perpetrator

Ivan A. Lopez-Lopez (October 23, 1979 – April 2, 2014) was an
Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
veteran who was born in
Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce ( , , ) is a city and a Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The most populated city outside the San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan metropolitan area, Ponce was founded on August 12, 1692Some publ ...
. He enlisted in the
Puerto Rico National Guard The Puerto Rico National Guard (PRNG; ) is the national guard of the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Constitution of the United States specifically charges the National Guard with dual federal and state missions, which includes to provide ...
on January 4, 1999, but was unable to pass a required English language course and was subsequently discharged on November 30 of the same year. Lopez reenlisted on April 30, 2003, as an infantryman and served until 2010. He served on active duty in the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
in June 2008. He was married and had four children, two of them from a previous marriage.


Service in the U.S. Army

Lopez was a specialist, and at the time of the shooting, he was assigned to the 13th Sustainment Command, a logistics and support unit at Fort Hood. He was previously assigned in
Fort Bliss Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Established in 1848, the fort was renamed in 1854 to honor William Wallace Smith Bliss, Bvt.Lieut.Colonel William W.S. Bliss (1815–1853 ...
, but was transferred to another base for four months, then moved to Fort Hood two months prior to the shooting. Lopez previously reported at Fort Hood in 2006 during his time in the Puerto Rico National Guard, where he was given orders to deploy to
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
from February 15, 2007, to February 10, 2008. From August 6 to December 18, 2011, Lopez served a tour in Iraq, participating in Operation New Dawn as
security detail A security detail, often known as a PSD (protective services detail, personal security detachment, personal security detail) or PPD (personal protection detail), is a protective team assigned to protect the personal security of an individual or ...
. On or about December 12, his convoy was involved in a roadside bombing. Though Lopez would allege that he had experiences in direct combat in Iraq and cited the bombing of his convoy, investigators determined he was not within the blast radius of the bomb used. On November 29, 2013, he began receiving MOS reclassification training at
Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri Fort Leonard Wood is a U.S. Army training installation located in the Missouri Ozarks. The main gate is located on the southern boundary of the city of St. Robert. The post was created in December 1940 and named in honor of General Leonard Woo ...
, graduating three months later. During his time there, he attempted to purchase a weapon on two occasions. On the second occasion, Lopez was persuaded by a classmate to reconsider the purchase.


Motives for the shooting

Lopez was allegedly distraught over financial issues and the deaths of his grandfather and then his mother during a two-month period five months prior to the shooting. He was also undergoing regular psychiatric treatment for depression, anxiety, and
posttraumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a Psychological trauma, traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster ...
. He tried to take leave in order to attend his mother's funeral in Puerto Rico. It took five days for the leave to be approved, but he was only allowed to be absent for 24 hours, which allegedly upset him. The leave was eventually extended to two days. More recently, Lopez had asked for a transfer, claiming that he was "being taunted and picked on" by other soldiers in his unit. During a press conference on the day of the shooting, Fort Hood Commander Mark A. Milley stated that Lopez died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. On March 1, 2014, over one month prior to the shooting, Lopez purchased the weapon used in the shooting from Guns Galore, the same store where
Nidal Malik Hasan Nidal Malik Hasan (born September 8, 1970) is an American former United States Army major, physician, and mass murderer convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in the Fort Hood mass shooting on November 5, 2009. Hasan, an Army Me ...
, the convicted perpetrator of the Fort Hood shooting in 2009, originally purchased his own weapon. Lopez's weapon was not registered with the installation. He had previously purchased a firearm of the same model, unregistered with the installation, on February 23, although he reported it stolen on March 1, the same day he bought a replacement. During that same month, he had seen a psychologist and was prescribed
Ambien Zolpidem, sold under the brand name Ambien among others, is a medication primarily used for the short-term treatment of sleeping problems. Guidelines recommend that it be used only after cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and after beha ...
for a sleeping problem. In his
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account, Lopez made posts in which he alleged that he was robbed by two men in early march and also criticized Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting On December 14, 2012, a mass shooting occurred at Newtown Public Schools, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, United States. The perpetrator, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people. The victims were 20 children bet ...
in 2012. Lopez also described his experiences in direct combat during his tour in Iraq, although military officials confirmed that Lopez did not experience any direct combat. A Facebook page created by Lopez claimed that he was a sniper who had been to the
Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to Central African Republic–Chad border, the north, Sudan to Central African Republic–Sudan border, the northeast, South Sudan to Central ...
. On March 24, Lopez's battalion began tracking a ten-day permissive temporary duty (PTDY) request he made immediately after arriving to Fort Hood so he could help his family relocate to an apartment in Killeen, as his current one was burglarized. He was given a four-day pass by his acting sergeant, who informed him that he would receive PTDY after his return. Lopez took the pass from March 27 to March 30. He returned to Fort Hood on March 31, though when he received the PTDY form, it was filled with errors and Lopez had to resubmit it with corrections. Though the corrected form was signed, it did not have a control number, which is reported to have led to the conflict in the 49th Transportation Battalion office that sparked the shooting.


See also

*
2009 Fort Hood shooting On November 5, 2009, a mass shooting took place at Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos), near Killeen, Texas, United States. Nidal Hasan, a Major (United States), U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 other ...
, another mass shooting that occurred on the base *
2015 Chattanooga shootings On July 16, 2015, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on two Military base, military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. He first committed a drive-by shooting at a Military recruitment, recruiting center, then traveled ...
, a spree shooting committed in 2015 at two military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee *
Luby's shooting The Luby's shooting, also known as the Luby's massacre, was a mass shooting that took place on October 16, 1991, at a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, United States. The perpetrator, George Hennard, drove his pickup truck through the front w ...
, another mass shooting in Killeen, Texas *
Washington Navy Yard shooting The Washington Navy Yard shooting occurred on September 16, 2013, when 34-year-old Aaron Alexis fatally shot 12 people and injured three others in a mass shooting at the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), inside the Washingt ...
, a
mass shooting A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...
committed in 2013 at the United States Naval Sea Systems Command


References

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