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Doctor Reportedly Called 911 Before Gunman Fatally Shot Her, 2 Others At Chicago Hospital
Police say Mercy Hospital shooting suspect Juan Lopez was playing "peek-a-boo" with the SWAT team before he was shot to death.
A doctor, one of three people tragically gunned down on Monday inside Chicago’s Mercy Hospital, reportedly called 911 prior to his fatal rampage.
The gunman, identified as Juan Lopez, 32, WLS-TV in Chicago reports, was once engaged to Dr. Tamara O’Neal (pictured).
Police say Lopez killed a police officer and two hospital employees in an attack that began with a domestic dispute and exploded into a firefight with law enforcement inside the medical center.
O’Neal reportedly called 911 to report that her ex-fiancé was armed before he began shooting, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Before the incident began, the former couple reportedly had a confrontation in the hospital’s parking lot. Before O’Neal was shot, a witness claimed that she and Lopez were said to have been yelling at one another over a ring, according to WGN9 in Chicago.
The source claimed Lopez demanded O’Neal give him a ring — something O’Neal said she didn’t have.
When a friend of O'Neal's tried to intervene, police say that Lopez then brandished his gun.
After he reportedly shot O’Neal, Lopez is said to have opened fire on responding officers who arrived at the medical center roughly a minute after O’Neal placed her call, the Sun-Times reports.
“He shoots her, runs into the hospital,” Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson told the Chicago Sun-Times. "That’s when, shooting randomly, he fatally wounded pharmacy resident Dayna Less as she was getting off an elevator.”
It is not clear when Lopez killed the third victim, Officer Samuel Jimenez.
However, police say the suspected gunman was in a firefight with a SWAT team member before he was killed.
“He was kind of playing peek-a-boo with the officer,” Johnson said.
According to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, Lopez died of a gunshot wound to his abdomen, as well as a self-inflicted wound to the head, NBC 5 in Chicago reports.
Meanwhile, O’Neal’s family put out a statement mourning the deceased medical professional, saying she was someone who lived to help others and “had a heart of gold.”
"She loved helping others. She was good at her job because it helped others. She was forged in her own adversity which made her the strongest person I will ever know," her family said in a statement, as quoted by NBC 5.
[Photo Credit: Associated Press]
