Gunman in Chicago hospital shooting had prior complaint
Juan Lopez subject of protection order request in 2014.
A man whofatally CHICAGO — shot his ex-fiancée outside a Chicago hospital before killing two people inside the building was the subject of a protection order request filed four years ago by another woman, yet he had legally purchased several guns in recent years, police said Tuesday.
The gunman, Juan Lopez, who also died following the shooting Monday at Mercy Hospital, had been engaged to Dr. Tamara O’Neal before he repeatedly shot the emergency room doctor near a hospital parking lot, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Investigators said he con- tinued shooting O’Neil after she fell to the ground and, after running into the hospi- tal, killed a police officer and a pharmacy worker.
Guglielmi said another woman complained in 2014 that Lopez was incessantly texting her and refused to stop. He said the woman called police and sought an order of protection from a judge, but it’s unclear whether she was granted such an order. Lopez was not criminally charged.
Guglielmi also said Lopez had a permit to possess a con- cealed firearm, but it’s unclear if officials knew about the 2014 complaint when the permit was granted. He said Lopez had legally purchased four guns in the last five years and worked for the Chicago Hous- ing Authority.
O’Neal had recently broken off their engagement when she was fatally shot by Lopez near the hospital on Chica- go’s South Side, Guglielmi said. Police said it’s unclear whether Lopez shot himself or was fatally shot by police.
Investigators identified the other shooting victims as Dayna Less, 25, a first-year pharmacy resident who had recently graduated from Purdue University, and Officer Samuel Jimenez, 28, who joined the department in February 2017 and had recently completed his probationary period. Police said he was mar- ried and the father of three children.
“This officer, all of those officers are heroes; they saved a lot of lives because we just don’t know how much damage he was prepared to do,” Chicago Police Superinten- dent Eddie Johnson said late Monday outside another hospital, just minutes after leav- ing the slain officer’s family.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, fight- ing back tears, said the victims were “all going about their day, all doing what they loved.” He added: “This just tears at the soul of our city. It is the face and a consequence of evil.”
Guglielmi described the shooting as a “domestic-related active shooter incident.”
Lopez, 32, and O’Neal had been arguing in the hospi- tal parking lot. When one of O’Neal’s friends tried to intervene, “the offender lifted up his shirt and displayed a handgun,” Johnson said.
The friend ran into the hospital to call for help, and the gunfire began seconds later. After O’Neal fell to the ground, Lopez “stood over her and shot her three more times,” a witness named James Gray told reporters.
When officers arrived, the suspect fired at their squad car, then ran inside the hospital. The police gave chase.
Inside the medical center, Lopez exchanged fire with officers and “shot a poor woman who just came off the elevator” before he was killed, Johnson said, referring to Less, the pharmaceutical assistant.
The death of Jimenez comes nine months after another member of the Chicago Police Department, Cmdr. Paul Bauer, was fatally shot while pursuing a suspect in the Loop business district.
Mercy has a rich history as the city’s first chartered hospital. It began in 1852, when the Sisters of Mercy religious group converted a rooming house. During the Civil War, the hospital treated both Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners of war, according to its website.