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What's Known — And Still Unclear — About The Fort Hood Shooting

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. We're continuing to follow developments in yesterday's deadly shooting at Fort Hood that left four people dead and 16 wounded. This afternoon, the commander of Fort Hood, Lieutenant General Mark Milley, confirmed the identity of the shooter.

LIEUTENTANT GENERAL MARK MILLEY: We are able to release, his next kin have been notified. The alleged shooter is Specialist Ivan A. Lopez. He is 34 years old, originally from Puerto Rico.

SIEGEL: At around 4:00 p.m. yesterday, Lopez is believed to have gone into two buildings where he opened fire. Three people were killed and 16 others injured before a military police officer encountered the shooter in a parking lot. Today, General Milley gave more details about what happened next.

MILLEY: He pulled out the .45 caliber Smith and Wesson weapon, at which time she saw that. Interpreted that as a threat, correctly so, and then engaged him with small arms fire. At which time then the shooter did a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

SIEGEL: General Milley did not name the MP but he commended her, saying she performed her duty exceptionally well. And he mentioned others whose heroism had saved lives, including a chaplain who shielded soldiers and broke a window to get them to safety.

Ivan Lopez had just started working at Fort Hood as a truck driver. He spent four months in Iraq in 2011, but never saw combat. General Milley said that Lopez was being treated for depression and was undergoing evaluation for post traumatic stress disorder.

MILLEY: We have very strong evidence that he had a medical history that indicates unstable psychiatric or psychological condition. We're going through all the records to ensure that that is, in fact, correct. But we believe that to be a fundamental underlying causal factor.

SIEGEL: That's Lieutenant General Mark Milley speaking this afternoon. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Robert Siegel
Prior to his retirement, Robert Siegel was the senior host of NPR's award-winning evening newsmagazine All Things Considered. With 40 years of experience working in radio news, Siegel hosted the country's most-listened-to, afternoon-drive-time news radio program and reported on stories and happenings all over the globe, and reported from a variety of locations across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. He signed off in his final broadcast of All Things Considered on January 5, 2018.