FORT HOOD, Texas — A U.S. soldier who shot dead three comrades and wounded 16 others before killing himself was on a cocktail of prescription drugs and angry with the army for initially refusing to let him attend his mother’s funeral, according to friends.
Specialist Ivan Lopez, 34, who had been prescribed drugs including antidepressants and Ambien for insomnia, smuggled a semi-automatic handgun past security at Fort Hood, Texas, and went on a rampage on Wednesday.
FacebookA Facebook photo believed to be of Fort Hood shooter Specialist Ivan Lopez.
A portrait has begun to emerge of a man who was a fan of Slipknot, a heavy metal band, and enjoyed posing for photographs with weapons, including a shoulder-held rocket launcher. Military officials said that despite a four-month tour of Iraq in 2011 he was a truck driver who had never been in combat.
Edgardo Arlequin, the mayor of Lopez’s home town Guayanilla, in Puerto Rico, said he had only been allowed to travel to his native country five days after his mother died from a heart attack in October, and was given just a 24-hour pass. He added: “They didn’t give him the time he wanted. That apparently affected him, upset him.” After his return from Iraq in 2011, Lopez had told senior officers that he suffered a traumatic brain injury, but military officials have said he was not wounded.
At the time of the shooting he was in the process of being assessed for post-traumatic stress disorder. In February he had been transferred from another base in Texas to Fort Hood, which has a Warrior Transition Unit, which supports soldiers suffering from mental of physical trauma.
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More than 40,000 military personnel are based at Fort Hood. The shooting highlighted the scale of the mental health legacy from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last month Lopez was fully examined by a military psychiatrist and there were found to be no signs that he was likely to commit violence against himself or others.
John McHugh, the U.S. army secretary, said: “The plan was just to continue to monitor and treat him as deemed appropriate.” Lopez served in the National Guard in Puerto Rico from 1999, going on a peacekeeping mission to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in the mid-2000s. He later joined the regular army.
AP Photo/Ricardo ArduengoThe Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, house where Spc. Ivan Lopez grew up, seen on April 3, 2014.
At 4pm on Wednesday, Lopez, who was in uniform, reportedly argued with other soldiers at a Medical Brigade building, then got into a vehicle, firing several shots out the window as he drove away. He then entered another building belonging to the 49th Transportation Battalion and opened fire again with a.45 calibre Smith & Wesson.
Less than 15 minutes after the shooting began he was confronted in a car park by a female military police officer who pointed her gun at him from 20ft away before Lopez shot himself in the head.
The shooting happened at the same base where Nidal Hassan, an army psychiatrist who had become radicalised by an al-Qaeda terrorist based in Yemen, shot dead 13 people and wounded 32 others in November 2009.
AP Photo/HandoutU.S. Army Sgt. Tim Owens was one of three killed by Spc. Ivan Lopez.
It was the third fatal shooting on a U.S. military base in six months. Last September, Aaron Alexis, a former navy reservist who believed he was controlled by electromagnetic waves, killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. Last month at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia a civilian went on to the base and shot dead a sailor on a destroyer. By comparison, last month no U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan.
A few weeks ago, Lopez moved into a small apartment with his wife and infant daughter just outside the sprawling base, which covers 340 square miles and surrounds the town of Killeen. As news of the shooting swept through Killeen the many residents with relations living or working on the base faced an agonising wait.
According to neighbours, Lopez’s wife initially feared that her husband might be one of the victims. She then emerged from the apartment “hysterical, shaking and crying” after finding out he was the shooter. She was later taken away by officials and is cooperating with authorities at the base.
Xanderia Morris, a neighbour, said Lopez left his home each morning for the base dressed in an army T-shirt.
Like in other U.S. military bases, soldiers at Fort Hood are unarmed apart from those employed in security duties. Lopez had purchased his gun at a civilian weapons store outside the base.
AP Photo/Eric GayAccording to officials, Fort Hood shooter Ivan Lopez purchased his weapon recently at Guns Galore, seen Thursday, April 3, 2014, in Killeen, Texas.
Following the 2009 shooting, Fort Hood imposed even stricter restrictions on guns. Soldiers living on the base who have privately held weapons were required to register them with their commander and keep them locked up.
But the latest shooting led to calls from some politicians and soldiers for the restrictions to be reversed. Sgt Howard Ray, a survivor of the 2009 massacre, said: “When our soldiers are unarmed, they will find themselves in a situation like yesterday and in 2009.”
A Texas congressman has already introduced a proposed law that would allow personal weapons to be carried on the base so soldiers could better tackle a crazed gunman.
The Daily Telegraph