Suspected Chicago gunman booted from fire academy for alleged aggressive acts toward women

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Nov. 20, 2018 / 6:21 PM GMT / Updated 6:48 PM GMT

By David K. Li

The man who allegedly gunned down a doctor, pharmacy resident and a police officer at a Chicago hospital had been booted from the city’s fire academy for inappropriate behavior toward women, officials told NBC Chicago.

Juan Lopez entered Chicago’s firefighter-training academy on March 17, 2014, and was terminated by May 22, officially for not showing up to respond to claims of aggressive and inappropriate behavior toward women, authorities said.

“In the end, he didn’t show up, was called to respond, and he was fired,” fire department spokesman Larry Merritt said.

Chicago Police Department Officer Samuel Jimenez.
Chicago Police Department Officer Samuel Jimenez.Chicago Police Department

Lopez, 32, is the alleged shooter who gunned down Dr. Tamara O’Neal, 38, as she was leaving her shift at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center on Monday afternoon, officials said. They had been engaged at some point before Monday’s deadly confrontation, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Tuesday.

Lopez also apparently had problems with another woman, his then-wife, back in 2014 when she asked for a restraining order against him, according to a copy of the woman’s request for an order of protection. The woman claimed that Lopez was sending her threatening texts after the couple began separation proceedings.

She called police and sought the order of protection from a judge, but it is unclear whether the request made it to court. Lopez was not criminally charged in this matter.

Guglielmi on Monday called the shooting “domestic-related.”

O’Neal, who worked in the hospital’s emergency room, was devoted to her job and church, family members said.

“She’s one of the sweetest nieces that I have,” her aunt Delores Davis told NBC Chicago. “She was also dedicated to her church.”

A colleague who said he trained O’Neal tried to save her life.

“I knew her, trained with her, saved lives with her and tonight, tried to save her life,” Dr. John Purakal tweeted on Monday night. “I broke down in front of my coworkers when we lost her, and tonight I held hands with her mother in prayer. Tonight, we lost a beautiful, resilient, passionate doc. Keep singing, TO.”

Also killed in the shooting that began at around 3:30 p.m. Monday was responding police officer Samuel Jimenez, 28, and pharmacy resident Dayna Less, 24. Lopez was also killed in the gunfire though it wasn’t immediately clear if he was shot by police or if he took his own life.

Less was engaged to be married in June and had recently overcome a disorder that had brought debilitating headaches since she was a teenager, loved ones said.

She loved helping others. She was good at her job because it helped others,” according to a family statement. “She was forged in her own adversity which made her the strongest person I will ever know.”

Her alma mater, Purdue University in Indiana, also paid tribute to the young victim.

“Today, we remember Dayna Less as a kind, compassionate, beautiful soul that had dedicated her life to helping others,” according to a statement by the Purdue College of Pharmacy. “The Purdue Pharmacy family along with the Purdue community grieve together alongside her family and friends in this most difficult time.”

The tragedy could have been even worse, but for a stroke of luck — one of the shooter’s bullets hit another responding police officer, but it slammed into that officer’s holstered pistol and he was not wounded, a Chicago police spokesman said Tuesday.

Jimenez was the 124th police officer killed in the line of duty this year in the United States, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

There are few situations as potentially deadly for a police officer than encountering a dispute between a current or former couple, said Steve Groeninger, spokesman for the law enforcement advocacy group.

“They’re walking into a lot emotion, people not thinking rationally,” Groeninger told NBC News on Tuesday. “It gets heated and out of control quickly.”

Jimenez joined the Chicago Police Department in February of last year and had just finished his probationary period. The officer wasn’t normally assigned to the area near Mercy Hospital, but he rushed to the scene when he heard calls of shots fired.

Jimenez is survived by his wife and three young children.

Associated Press contributed.