A gunman opened fire at the Mercy Hospital & Medical Center campus in Chicago the afternoon of Nov. 19, killing a Chicago police officer, a physician and a first-year pharmacy resident, according to CBS Chicago.
The reported gunman, 32-year-old Juan Lopez, was killed by a police bullet to the abdomen, but the Cook Count Medical Examiner’s Office noted on Nov. 20 he also sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to ABC 7.
The shooting stemmed from a domestic violence incident involving Mr. Lopez’s former fiancee, Tamara O’Neal, MD, an emergency room physician, according to WGN 9. The shooting began as an argument in the hospital parking lot between Mr. Lopez and Dr. O’Neal, Mr. Lopez’s first victim.
Dayna Less, 25, a pharmacy resident who recently graduated from Purdue University, was shot as she left an elevator, according to WGN 9. Chicago police officer Samuel Jimenez, 28, was in a shootout with Mr. Lopez and later died after being taken to University of Chicago Medicine — a level 1 trauma center. He joined the force in February 2017, the Chicago Tribune reports.
At the time of the attack, Chicago Police Department spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi tweeted that there were “reports of multiple victims.”
CBS Chicago cited dispatch reports that a woman had been shot, as well as an officer.
About 200 patients were being treated at Mercy, but authorities only evacuated the hospital’s emergency room.
Mercy Hospital posted a tweet at 2:41 p.m. Nov. 19 stating, “A shooting took place at Mercy Hospital & Medical Center this afternoon. The shooting at Mercy Hospital is over. Chicago Police Department have secured the hospital and patients are safe.”
Mercy conducted an active shooter drill just last month, Mercy CMO Michael Davenport told the Chicago Tribune.
Illinois Health and Hospital Association President and CEO A.J. Wilhelmi issued the following statement about the incident:
“On behalf of our 212 hospital members and their 250,000 healthcare employees, the Illinois Health and Hospital Association expresses our condolences to the family and friends of the victims of the senseless act of violence that occurred at Mercy Hospital in Chicago. We are incredibly saddened by the tragic loss these victims and their families have suffered. This was an unexplainable act that took the lives of three people who went to work every day to protect and save lives in their community. We owe it to them to find ways to stop the violence, and the hospital community remains dedicated to helping in that important endeavor.”
The shooting comes in the wake of a nationwide discussion among healthcare professionals about gun violence after a controversial tweet by the National Rifle Association. Physicians have been responding to the tweet — which told “self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane” — by sharing photos and stories about their experiences treating victims of gun violence.
HENRY KOTULA 