Fort Hood Shooter Was an Iraq Veteran Being Evaluated for PTSD
The army specialist who killed three people and injured 16 others before turning the gun on himself was an Iraq veteran who was in the process of being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Officials haven't confirmed reports, but the New York Times cites a Pentagon official naming the gunman as Ivan Lopez, a married Army Specialist who served a four-month tour in Iraq in 2011 and may have self-reported a traumatic brain injury. According to the LA Times:
Federal officials said Army serviceman Ivan Lopez, 34, was being treated for anxiety, depression and was under evaluation for post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the shooting on the base.
According to Army officials, Lopez began firing with a semiautomatic pistol in the Fort Hood motor pool around 4:30 pm. He kept shooting until a military police officer approached him with her gun drawn, at which point he turned his gun on himself. At the same time, Fort Hood went into a lockdown and victims were transported to Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas. The lockdown lifted around 9 pm.
According to the New York Times, three victims are in critical condition and five others are expected to be upgraded from serious to fair later tonight. Authorities have not yet released the names of the three people who died in the shooting.
Thursday marks the second mass shooting at Fort Hood in the last five years, when Army Major Nidal Hasan shot 45 people, killing 13. Hasan was convicted in August and sentenced to death by lethal injection.
[image via AP]