2014 Fort Hood shooting

On April 2, 2014, a shooting spree occurred at several locations on the Fort Hood military base near Killeen, Texas. Four people, including the gunman, were killed, while sixteen additional people were injured.^[8][9] The shooter, 34-year-old Army Specialist Ivan 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 seek 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.^[10][11]

Lopez then left, and at approximately 4:00 p.m., he returned and opened fire with a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson M&P pistol inside the same building, injuring ten soldiers. Among those injured were Sgt. Jonathan Westbrook, one of the soldiers involved in the altercation with Lopez; he was hit four times, being one of the first to be shot during the shooting. Lopez also killed Sgt. First Class Daniel Ferguson, another soldier involved in the altercation, while the latter was barricading a door that couldn't be locked.

He 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 continued firing inside the office, killing Sgt. Timothy Owens when he approached him and tried to talk him down.^[12] He then moved on to the building's vehicle bay area, where he injured two soldiers, and then proceeded to the 1st Medical Brigade headquarters in his car. Along the way, he shot into a car occupied by two soldiers, wounding the passenger. Reaching the medical building, Lopez injured a soldier walking outside. He then entered the building and fatally shot a soldier at the main entrance desk, Staff Sgt. Carlos Lazaney-Rodriguez; he also wounded another soldier inside.

Approximately eight minutes after the shooting first started, Lopez went to the parking lot of another building, Building 39002, where he was confronted by an unidentified female 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 head with his own pistol. At least 35 rounds were fired during the shooting spree, three of which were fired 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.^{[1][9][13][14][11]}

Victims

Three people, excluding the gunman, were killed in the shooting. They were identified as:^[15][16]

Aftermath

During the shooting, the Bell County Sheriff's Office dispatched deputies and troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety to the nearby post after receiving reports of an "active shooter", sheriff's Lt. Donnie Adams said. Federal Bureau of Investigation 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 Twitter feed and Facebook page, Fort Hood officials ordered everyone on base to "shelter in place" during the shooting.^[17][18][19]

All of the injured victims were taken to Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center,^[20] for initial treatment and stabilization. Once they were stabilized they were then transferred to Scott & White Memorial Hospital where they received further care. As of April 10, twelve of the sixteen wounded have been released from the hospitals and returned to duty, while the other four remain hospitalized in stable condition.^[12]

Reacting to the incident, President Barack Obama said at a fundraiser in Chicago that he was left "heartbroken" and assured that the events would be investigated.^[21] 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 traveled to Fort Hood to attend a ceremony honoring the victims.^[12]

On April 16, discussion was renewed over if soldiers should be allowed to carry concealed firearms on military bases in Texas and other states.^[22]

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 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.^[10][23][24]

Perpetrator

Ivan A. Lopez-Lopez
Born	Ivan A. Lopez-Lopez (1979-10-23)October 23, 1979 Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
Died	April 2, 2014(2014-04-02) (aged 34) Killeen, Texas, U.S.
Cause of death	Self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head
Nationality	American
Occupation	Army Specialist
Motive	Depression, anxiety, anger over being denied leave[9]

Ivan A. Lopez-Lopez^[10][23] (October 23, 1979 – April 2, 2014) was an Iraq War veteran who was born in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico. He enlisted in the Puerto Rico National Guard in 1999, but was unable to complete his training and was subsequently discharged on November of the same year. Lopez reenlisted in 2003 as an infantryman and served until 2010. He also joined the United States Army in June 2008. He was married and had four children. From August to December 2011, he served a tour in Iraq.^{[13][14][25][10][26]}

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, but was transferred to another base for four months, then moved to Fort Hood two months prior to the shooting.^[24]

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.^{[27][28][10][23]} He tried to take a leave of absence 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.^[14][25][24] More recently, Lopez had asked for a transfer, claiming that he was "being taunted and picked on" by other soldiers in his unit.^[28]

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. One month prior to the shooting, Lopez allegedly purchased the weapon used in the shooting from Guns Galore, the same store where Nidal Malik Hasan, the convicted perpetrator of the Fort Hood shooting in 2009, originally purchased his own weapon. Lopez's weapon was not registered with the installation.^[15][25][24] He had also purchased a second firearm unregistered with the installation, although it was stolen weeks before the shooting.^[29] During that same month, he had seen a psychologist and was prescribed Ambien for a sleeping problem.^[13]

In his Facebook account, Lopez made posts in which he alleged that he was robbed by two men and also criticized Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Lopez also described his experiences in direct combat in Iraq, including an incident that occurred on the last month of his tour in Iraq, in which his convoy was involved in an explosion caused by a roadside bomb.^[11] However, military officials confirmed that Lopez did not experience any direct combat.^[30][31] A Facebook page created by Lopez claimed that he was a sniper who had been to the Central African Republic.^[24]

See also

• 2009 Fort Hood shooting, a fatal shooting in the same area in 2009 where 13 were killed and more than 30 were injured
• Gun violence in the United States
• Washington Navy Yard shooting, a mass shooting committed in 2013 at the United States Naval Sea Systems Command
• Luby's shooting, another mass shooting in Killeen, Texas

References