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Tag: fort hood shooting
Fort Hood Shooting ‘Happened Right In Front Of Me,’ Soldier Texts

Fort Hood Shooting ‘Happened Right In Front Of Me,’ Soldier Texts

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times

FORT HOOD, Texas — Moments after news broke of the Fort Hood shooting about 4 p.m. CDT last Wednesday, Suzy Sanders began frantically texting her 21-year-old stepson, a soldier stationed at the Army post since fall.

His first chilling reply landed at 5:22 p.m.

“It happened right in front of me Suz,” Pvt. Jacob “Jake” Sanders texted. “I watched my sergeant die. I tried to revive him. I’m fine. I love you.”

Sanders, a former varsity basketball player from Indiana with a brown crew cut, square jaw and wide smile, is among four survivors expected to be honored by President Barack Obama at a Wednesday memorial here. Others include a chaplain who helped save fellow soldiers and a female military police officer who confronted the shooter.

While the military is not allowing Sanders or other witnesses to speak publicly, the soldier recounted his experience to his father, Greg Sanders, 41, of Madison, Ind., a small town along the Ohio River, who shared it with the Los Angeles Times on Monday.

For Jake Sanders, the ordeal began when the shooter entered the transport building where he worked, his .45-caliber Smith & Wesson drawn.

Sanders knew the shooter, Spc. Ivan Lopez, 34, who had recently joined his transport unit in the post’s 13th Sustainment Command. He was a quiet soldier who mostly kept to himself.

A few other soldiers were in the room. But Sanders was the closest, about 5 feet away, as Lopez approached his boss, Sgt. Timothy Owens.

Owens, 37, was a gruff leader from a small town in southern Illinois who was known as “Sgt. O” to his troops. Sanders admired and trusted Owens, who reminded him of his high school basketball coach back home in Indiana.

That day, Owens exchanged words with Lopez. Sanders has yet to tell his family what was said.

“Sgt. Owens tried to verbally talk him down, and that’s when the shot was fired,” Greg Sanders said. Jake Sanders wasn’t sure whether it was just one shot, but at least one bullet wounded Owens. He tumbled to the floor.

“It happened so fast, before he knew it, Sgt. ‘O’ was on the ground,” Greg Sanders said.

No one else was injured.

Lopez fled to a nearby parking lot where he would confront the female military police officer before shooting himself in the head.

Jake Sanders rushed to his sergeant. He had trained as a medic before switching to the transport unit. Drawing on his medical training, he began administering CPR and was soon covered in blood.

He wasn’t sure how long it took paramedics to arrive. His sergeant was still alive when they left, but died at the hospital.

Sanders was so stunned that when military police arrived, he could barely speak.

“The emotion took over,” his father said.

Officials took Sanders and other witnesses for questioning by the military’s Criminal Investigation Division staff. He kept texting his family overnight. They updated him on the carnage Lopez had left in his wake as he fired in another building and from his car outside. Two other soldiers had been killed, 16 wounded.

Sanders later learned that Lopez may have been upset because superiors denied his leave request after his mother died in November.

Sanders had also lost a grandparent during his time in the military. His grandfather died during his basic training at Fort Jackson, in Columbia, S.C. His father recalled that the family told Sanders about the death at his graduation. He did not take leave to attend the funeral.

His son’s decision to join the military had surprised Sanders, a sales manager at a Chevrolet dealership who did not serve.

In recent days, Jake Sanders has been thinking back to the shooting, considering his military training and whether he could have saved Owens.

“He felt a lot of guilt because he couldn’t do more,” his father said. “That’s been tough on him.”

On Saturday, Sanders met Owen’s wife for dinner and visited some of the shooting victims he knows who are still hospitalized. That helped him feel a bit better, his father said. Sanders has also been distracting himself by watching NCAA basketball, a staple of his childhood.

He owes the Army at least three more years and plans to keep pursuing a military career.

After the shooting, Sanders’ fatigues and boots were so covered in blood, he had to throw them away. He bought replacements with his own money.

His father said his son’s decision to keep serving shows the strength of his character and commitment.

Greg Sanders does not plan to attend the memorial on Wednesday — he has to work and care for his two younger children. But he is scheduled to visit his son here next weekend.

“I just want to hug him,” he said, “He’s my hero. I’m proud he used his training to try to save Sgt. Owens.”

Sanders texted his parents about the memorial, telling them he is to receive an award from Obama at a “pinning” ceremony. He was still more preoccupied with the loss of his sergeant than the prospect of meeting the president, his father said.

“It’s not about us,” Sanders wrote. “It’s about the ones who died and were injured. And we hope it stays that way.”

Photo via Deborah Cannon/Austin American-Statesman/MCT

Investigators Assemble Clues About Fort Hood Shooter

Investigators Assemble Clues About Fort Hood Shooter

By Jeremy Schwartz, Philip Jankowski and Marty Toohey, Austin American-Statesman

 

AUSTIN, Texas—On March 1, Spc. Ivan Lopez walked into Guns Galore on the southern outskirts of Killeen and bought a .45-caliber Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol.

Around the same time, an Army psychiatrist gave the 34-year-old native of Puerto Rico a full evaluation. Lopez was undergoing treatment for depression, anxiety and sleeping disorders, and he had been prescribed a number of drugs, including the sleep aid Ambien.

His psychiatrist, however, concluded that he posed no threat of violence, either to himself or to others, Army Secretary John McHugh said Thursday.

A month later, he opened fire at the headquarters of his unit, the 49th Transportation Movement Control Battalion, which he had just joined in February. He killed three soldiers and wounded 16 others before turning the gun on himself Wednesday.

The identities of two of the slain soldiers emerged Thursday: Puerto Rican soldier Carlos Lazaney, 38, and Sgt. Timothy Owens, 37, of Illinois. Both were identified by family members to media outlets.

On Thursday, investigators continued to piece together the puzzle of Lopez, who according to senior military leaders, was “a very experienced soldier” who had served two overseas tours during more than a decade of military service.

Fort Hood Commander Lt. Gen. Mark Milley said Thursday there was a “strong indication” that the rampage was preceded by an argument with another soldier. Yet Milley concluded that there wasn’t evidence that Lopez was targeting specific soldiers.

And despite the psychiatrist’s evaluation that he posed no threat, Milley said Thursday that Lopez’s mental state led to the shooting rampage. Had medical professionals determined that Lopez was a threat, they would have been empowered to inquire about any gun purchases and ask him to turn in any personal weapons, according to Fort Hood policy.

Army officials repeated Thursday that they have found nothing linking Lopez to extremist or terrorist groups.

Meanwhile, more examples of heroism among the soldiers targeted by López emerged. Milley said the first 911 calls were made by two soldiers after they had been shot and wounded.

During the rampage, a chaplain, who Milley declined to name, helped shelter soldiers, breaking a window and allowing soldiers to escape safely.

And the rampage, which began in his unit’s headquarters, ended when a military police officer fired at Lopez in a parking lot after he drew his weapon on her. At that point, Lopez killed himself with a gunshot to the head, Milley said. It’s unclear if he was hit by any of the officer’s shots.

Fort Hood officials said a memorial service for the victims would be held early next week.

Three soldiers remain in serious condition at Scott & White Hospital-Temple. Three soldiers were at Fort Hood’s Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center on Thursday evening, according to Fort Hood. Ten soldiers have been treated and released.

For many in the Fort Hood area, the shooting brought back unwelcome memories of the Nov. 5, 2009, mass shooting, in which 13 were killed and more than 30 wounded. Survivors of that attack called Thursday for increased security measures at military installations.

Retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, injured in the 2009 attack, placed blame for the shooting on the government.

“How many lives are going to have to be lost before the powers that be strengthen security on base?” Lunsford told The Austin American-Statesman.

Last month, a panel convened after last year’s deadly shooting at the Washington Navy Yard called for just such an overhaul. “For decades, the Department (of Defense) has approached security from a perimeter perspective,” former Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Stockton told reporters. “That approach is outmoded, it is broken, and the department needs to replace it. … What the Department of Defense should do is build security from within.”

At Lopez’s residence in Terrace Heights Apartments in Killeen, neighbors said they were unsettled to learn the man identified as the shooter lived so close.

“It freaked me out,” Daz Briggins said.

Iesha Bradley said Lopez’s wife was crying uncontrollably after it was reported that her husband was the shooter and that he was dead. Bradley and others attempted to console her.

On Wednesday night, First United Methodist Church in Killeen held a prayer vigil that drew 65 or so members. None of the church members were among the victims, “but obviously, there was anxiety and concern, especially among those who were here in 2009,” lead pastor Jeff Miller said.

Milley promised an “external investigation” into Fort Hood’s mental health programs in coming weeks to probe for any gaps. After the 2009 shooting, officials found shortages of behavioral health specialists and conducted a similar evaluation of the post’s mental health capacity.

While suicides at Fort Hood spiked in recent years, hitting a record 22 in 2010, suicides dipped to just seven last year, the lowest since 2007. Reported suicide attempts, however, increased in 2013.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), called military mental health issues among the “most vexing” facing the nation, but also urged caution in characterizing combat veterans. “We have to be very careful not to paint with too broad a brush,” Cornyn said Thursday outside the gates of Fort Hood. “We shouldn’t stigmatize healthy people who are resilient.”

afp.com / Jim Watson

2009 Fort Hood Victim On Latest Shooting: ‘I Kind Of Lost It’

2009 Fort Hood Victim On Latest Shooting: ‘I Kind Of Lost It’

By Saba Hamedy, Los Angeles Times

Amber Gadlin, 24, was driving home from the grocery store when she got the text Wednesday afternoon.

“Turn on the news,” her neighbor wrote. “My mom said there was another shooting at Fort Hood.”

Gadlin’s heart stopped.

The memories from the 2009 Fort Hood shooting came rushing back:

The four gunshot wounds in her back.

The three days she spent in the hospital.

“I started shaking and crying. I kind of lost it. I’m pretty sure I had a panic attack,” she told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday night from her home in Albuquerque, N.M., where she now lives. “It was kind of looking at the same situation in two completely different ways.”

Gadlin, who is a stay-at-home mom to her 18-month-old son, immediately called her mom.

“My mom said, ‘Oh, my God’ — and from what she told me, she lost it too,” Gadlin said.

Later, she updated her Facebook page.

“I can’t breath,” she wrote. “I am shaking so bad right now.”

About 30 people posted replies; many friends wrote that they were praying for her.

“You’ve been through hell and back, just glad you’re home and not going through it again,” one friend said.

Another wrote, “We’re out of the area physically but this pulls us right back emotionally, as I’m sure it does for so many.”

As far as safety at Fort Hood goes, Gadlin, who has arthritis in her back because of bullet fragments, said she didn’t think much could be done.

“The only way that you’re going to stop something like that from happening again is literally patting every single person down,” she said. “The last time I checked it was something like 70, 80,000 people that go on base every single day, so doing something like that is virtually impossible.”

But Gadlin thinks there could be more training to prepare for such events.

A couple of Gadlin’s friends who are still at Fort Hood posted on their Facebook pages that they were safe.

By 7 p.m., Gadlin was finally able to relax.

“I’m still thinking about it and everything,” she said. “But I’m not really panicking anymore.”

The shooting also brought back memories for Kimberly Cooke of Oneonta, N.Y., whose brother, Matthew, was shot five times at Fort Hood in 2009, and survived.

“I’m totally fine until I hear my family panicking and I know they are having flashbacks,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “I hear them tearing up on the other end of the phone line … thinking of the Fort Hood families.”

When the 2009 shooting occurred, Cooke said her family had trouble getting information about the incident.

“Nobody contacted us to tell us he was one of the victims,” she said. “The Army is not really forthcoming in with what’s going on.”

Cooke said her family still hadn’t told her brother about Wednesday’s shooting.

“He actually doesn’t know about the shooting today,” she told the Times. “My family hasn’t told him because he suffers a lot of PTSD issues. He has a lot of heavy depression. He’s still on anxiety medications, four and a half years later.”

U.S. Army Photo by John Byerly