By JESSICA LYNN DEPAULA
Authorities have confirmed the identity of a Puerto Rico National Guard soldier who left sixteen victims injured and three dead after a lethal shootout at Fort Hood on Wednesday afternoon.
34-year-old- Ivan Lopez walked into the massive Texas Army base, which was the scene of another deadly shooting that resulted in the deaths of thirteen people in 2009, at around 4 o’clock on April 2 carrying a recently purchased .45-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and opened fire before committing suicide. All of the victims were military employees, officials said; the handgun was allegedly purchased near Fort Hood.
Lopez, a former soldier who reported a severe brain injury after his service, had been being treated for anxiety, depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but had displayed no violent tendencies.
After firing the gun several times at the base, Lopez reportedly ran into a getaway vehicle and drove off, still shooting at bystanders, before being confronted by a military police officer and shooting himself. While the entire incident lasted roughly twenty minutes, a strict lockdown was enforced in the area of Fort Hood until 7 p.m. Wednesday night.
President Obama, in statement released immediately after the event, expressed his condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims, saying that the nation is “we’re “heartbroken something like this might have happened again.”
