US military base gunman showed no risk of violence
Print Edition
THE soldier who killed three people before committing suicide in an attack on the same Texas military base where more than a dozen people were slain in 2009 had shown no recent risks of violence, authorities said yesterday.
The shooter, identified as Ivan Lopez by Texas Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, opened fire at Fort Hood on Wednesday afternoon. He wounded more than a dozen others.
Army Secretary John McHugh said the soldier saw no combat during a four-month deployment to Iraq as a truck driver from August to December 2011.
The soldier saw a psychiatrist last month and showed no “sign of any likely violence either to himself or others,” McHugh said. His record shows “no involvement with extremist organizations of any kind.
“We’re not making any assumptions. We’re going to keep an open mind and an open investigation,” McHugh added.
Within hours of the attack, investigators started looking into whether the soldier had lingering psychological trauma from his time in Iraq. Fort Hood’s senior officer, Lieutenant General Mark Milley, said the gunman had sought help for depression, anxiety and other problems, and was taking medication.
Among the possibilities investigators were exploring was whether a fight or argument on the base triggered the attack.
An official said authorities would begin by speaking with the man’s wife, and expected to search his home and any computers he owned.
His .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol was purchased locally and was not registered to be on the base, Milley said.
McHugh said the soldier, a Puerto Rico native, joined the island’s National Guard in 1999. He enlisted with the United States army in 2008.
At least three of the nine injured still in hospital yesterday were in a critical condition.
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