Source: Scott Olson / Getty
A shooting at a Chicago hospital on Monday (Nov. 19) has left three persons dead, including a Black doctor who was the alleged target of the assault. Dr. Tamara O’Neal was shot and killed by an ex-fiancee after what authorities have described as a broken engagement.
Local outlet Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Four years ago, when the man suspected of killing three people at Mercy Hospital realized his wife of nearly seven years might be leaving him, he allegedly sent her text messages threatening to go to her job “and cause a scene.”
Now Juan Lopez, 32, of the North Park neighborhood, is believed to be the man who fatally shot three people Monday when he realized another woman was leaving him. Emergency medicine physician Tamara O’Neal, who died in the shooting Monday, broke off her engagement to Lopez a few months ago, her father said.
“Family had talked to her and basically said, ‘Cut your ties because you just can’t be friends with someone in situations like that,’” Tom O’Neal said in his living room in LaPorte, Indiana. “He couldn’t let go and he took her away from us.”
The shooting also claimed the lives of Chicago Police Officer Samuel Jimenez and pharmacy tech Dayna Less.
Lopez was also killed Monday afternoon, though it’s still not clear whether police killed him, or if he took his own life. DePaul University confirmed that he had been enrolled as a graduate student there, seeking a degree in public service. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 2013.
According to the outlet, Lopez had a long history of expressing violence towards women. The slain gunman did have proper license to carry a concealed weapon according to reports.
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Photo: Getty
